Last week, I wrote about the Washington Post’s decision to publish a large photo of a Palestinian toddler killed during Israel’s Gaza operation on the front page. The picture captures the most tragic aspect of war, the death of innocent civilians and the pain of the families they leave behind. But by not balancing this photo with an image of Hamas attacks on Israel, it also gave the impression that Israelis were fighting a war of aggression, rather than self-defense.
The Washington Post’s ombudsman, Patrick Pexton, responded to criticism on Friday:
Many readers asked why The Post didn’t balance the photo of the grieving father with one of Israelis who had lost a loved one from the Gaza rocket fire. That’s a valid question.
The answer is that The Post cannot publish photographs that don’t exist. No Israeli civilian had been killed by Gaza rocket fire since Oct. 29, 2011, more than a year earlier. The first Israeli civilian deaths from Gaza rocket fire in 2012 did not take place until Nov. 15, when Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, began firing more accurate and deadly missiles in response to the Israeli offensive that had begun the day before. There were no recent photos of Israeli casualties to be had on the night of Nov. 14.
Perhaps the Washington Post didn’t have photos of recent Israeli civilian casualties on Nov. 14, but that’s not because these casualties didn’t exist. On Nov. 11, southern Israel was pounded with over 100 Hamas rockets, injuring at least three. Perhaps WaPo didn’t think these casualties were worth documenting, or maybe it didn’t have a photographer nearby at the time. But they certainly existed, and it’s puzzling that Paxton doesn’t even mention them in his column.
Beyond that, three Israelis died in Hamas rocket attacks the night the WaPo front page in question was printed, yet the paper didn’t follow up with a front page photo of these casualties. In fact, it hasn’t printed any pictures of any Israeli casualties whatsoever on its front page since the start of Operation Pillar of Defense. So the argument that “balanced” photos would have been published prominently had they existed doesn’t hold up.
Pexton continues:
I think we can all agree that the Gaza rocket fire is reprehensible and is aimed at terrorizing Israeli civilians. It’s disruptive and traumatic. But let’s be clear: The overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza are like bee stings on the Israeli bear’s behind.
These rockets are unguided and erratic, and they carry very small explosive payloads; they generally fall in open areas, causing little damage and fewer injuries.
“Bee stings on a bear’s behind”? Maybe Pexton can explain that to the children of Sderot, many of whom suffer traumatic stress disorders after being dragged out of bed night after night by the sound of air raid sirens. Or to the families of the Israelis killed by what Pexton refers to as “unguided and erratic” Hamas rocket attacks last week. Or to over a million Israelis forced to put their lives on hold to hide in bomb shelters, because, as effective as Iron Dome is, it can’t block every missile — and it just takes one.
The truth is, Hamas’s rockets don’t cause as many casualties as they otherwise would because Israel goes to great lengths to protect its people. It spends fortunes on bomb shelters and missile defense systems. In contrast, Israel’s military responses cause more Palestinian casualties than they otherwise would because Hamas goes to great lengths to endanger its people. It shoots missiles out of hospitals and schools, uses children as human shields, and tells Gaza civilians to ignore Israeli warning pamphlets that advise them to leave targeted neighborhoods.
Washington Post stories that give prominent coverage to Palestinian casualties and downplay Israeli ones — and columns like Pexton’s that compare Hamas missiles to bee stings and Israel to a bear — play into Hamas’s strategy of endangering its own people, and ensure that it will continue in the future.
This makes one wonder why Israel doesn't deliberately target such Journalists/Nazis (no difference). I'm all for it. Shoot at their families also. Let them understand what it feels like to have someone target your children. Except for one thing. Don't miss.
The Washington Post is clueless and hopeless. You are better off banging your head against the wall than thinking their ombudsman will actually do his job.
One tactic is a letter to the ombudsman, copied to EVERY advertiser in that day's edition. n nI do believe in sometimes playing hardball…
Pexton like the recently retired Arthur Brisbane of the New York Times is very much an ideologue and not the least bit interested in accuracy. In general the job of the public editor/ombudsman is to provide the illusion of accountability to journalism. By hiring someone on a time limited contract from an outside organization papers pretend that public editor is independent. In fact, since public editors usually come from the field of journalism they are much more likely to explain why the common sense of critical readers is less valid than the considered wisdom of professional journalists than to challenge their employers.
Maybe Obama can use"bee stings" next time,instead of "bumps in the road".
The WaPo photo was of a BUNDLE — it showed no face — and I am not convinced that there even was a child in the bundle. It could have been a bag of muffin mix for all we know. n nFor reasons why I have articulated at length in the past, I believe that all three of the WaPo's photos were fraudulent – that the father was staged and that the two of the burnt out building had nothing to do with IDF ordinance.
Alas, Israel suffers from the same Leftist mind set that afflicts the US. the only thing that will stop Islam is overwhelming force–level Gaza with air assaults and artillery, make the rubble bounce, and then kill the remnants with infantry. I only hope that after a couple of nuke strikes on the US by Islamic terrorists, or after a couple of bio attacks, that we will finally realize that this insane death cult must be exterminated.
I agree. Pexton's comments are disgraceful. There would have been many Jewish deaths if not for the Iron Dome and/or the shelters. This is such a disgraceful comment.
It should also be recalled that the Washington Post not only never showed any photos of the blood-curdling massacre of the Fogels and three of their children in Itamar in March, 2011 but also buried the entire story. Stories and pictures of dead Jews haven't made good copy since at least Auschwitz.
The horrific torture-murders of the Holzbergs in Mumbai never got much coverage either. The Daily Mail in the UK was one of the few to show the blood-smeared room where the couple and their guests were slaughtered.
They didn't make good copy then until after the war was over. Reports during the war were hushed up. Rafael Medoff had his grad students at OSU research coverage of the European's WWII extermination of the Jews; they found that most of the newspapers they looked at, not just the NYT, buried or killed any stories about the death camps.
I wonder if Patrick Pexton would think "The overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza are like bee stings on the Israeli bear’s behind" if the column read "The overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza at Patrick Pexton's house are like bee stings on Patrick Pexton's behind. " n nIt might give Patrick Pexton a new perspective if someone shot a couple of hundred rockets at his neighborhood, maybe when the wife was home and the kids were playing in the yard, and only five of them hit his house. How could he object to that? After all, the overwhelming number didn't hit his house. He certainly wouldn't have anything to complain about, would he? Well, not according to Patrick Pexton, anyway.
I have been saying this for years. When the rockets fall pack up all the drunks on expense account at the Tel Aviv hotels into buses and drop them off where the rockets are falling and drive away.
Did you catch this nugget: “when Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, began firing more accurate and deadly missiles in response to the Israeli offensive that had begun the day before.” So it was Israel who started the whole thing, and it was Hamas merely responding. Oh. Thanks for clearing that up, Pat. I wonder if it gets easier to lie the more you do it. Scandalous.
I was more thinking in terms of words I won't put here as children needn't see them…
Pexton, certainly compared to the NYTimes ombudsmen, always seemed admirable. He was willing to challenge the paper, to hold its feet to the fire. He seemed pretty objective. n nUntil now. And it is not a question of nuance, of perspective. We have here a glaring case of bias. Pexton is willing to defend the very antithesis of good journalism. He quotes the Post's photo editor, Mary Ann Golon who declares: n n"the purpose of any front-page photo, regardless of subject, is to move the reader, whether through its beauty, sentiment or drama." n nThe ombudsma supports her in that. He cites that explanation to justify the front page photo, of a dead Palestinian infant and his grieving father, which serves to suggest who is the victim and who the aggressor in that war. n nIs that journalism? Is the picture accompanying a news report, suppose to convey sentiment and drama, or to support the facts of the story? Is it legitimate to grip the reader emotionally in a way that faults one side, though the story does not establish that blame? The dead child story makes the Israelis the villains and aggressors of that war. Since when does a single civilian casualty establish that? n nThe US bombed German and Japanese cities until the asphalt in the streets leapt into flames. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were asphyxiated including infants. Did that make the US the aggressor in WWII? n nMoreover, we cannot even be sure that it was Israeli ordnance that killed that child. Many of the Palestinian rockets, being home made, are defective and fall short. Why would the Israelis shoot at Palestinians civilians which produces no military gain, only devastating anti-Israel PR? Moreover, the Post ignores the long record of Palestinian shaming, blaming the Jews for their own "work accidents" when their bomb makers blow themselves up by mistake. Has it forgotten the false Palestinian claims that the IDF targeted Arab hospitals and schools, that it made a practice of shooting Palestinian children in the eyes, that it harvests the organs of Palestinians? Has it forgotten the fake Palestinian stretcher cases, the fake corpses which, when a casket accidentally fell to the ground stood up and ran away? The Western media makes a practice of reporting these Palestinian fictions which ever are exposed much too late. The NYTimes, during one of the Intifadas famously front paged a ferocious Israeli policeman swinging his baton over a youngsters bloodied head. Later it turned out the injured boy was a Jew and the policeman was warding off his Arab pursuers. n nThe Washington Post, with that inflammatory infant photo admits to the most brazen methods of propaganda, its photo editor justifies the image precisely for its emotional value; and the ombudsman, the virtuous Patrick Pexton, sees no problem.
Who says there was ANY child in that bundle? n
Excellent article by Alana; excellent comments by the usual suspects here, so not much for me to add. I especially enjoy the Empress' idea of loading-up the journo drunks into school buses –fluorescent orange ones with big bull's eye targets, I'd recommend for the added spice — and leaving them stranded on the outskirts of Sderot. They'll be fine, of course. After all, "these rockets are unguided and erratic, and they carry very small explosive payloads; they generally fall in open areas, causing little damage and fewer injuries." n n
unless the drunken journalists have enough alcohol on their breath to constitute a fuel-air explosion — the yield on those rival a small nuke.
I have had that baby carriage 'cartoon' on my screen saver since 2009. nTry sending it to any American whining about the plight of the palestinians – it really gets them crazy! as it should. n nand, I do not think that cartoon violates any muslim blasphemy laws.