Challenge

Alright 'Buzzkill', I'll do it

I generally try to stay out of the whole Israel/Palestinian thing. It's an explosive issue, more so than any other issue I can think of (and that includes abortion, the invasion of Iraq, the causes of 9/11, and Dubya himself).

But in a recent series of conversations with one of my online sparring partners, we hit one of those frequent impasses which never fails to leave me agog. Namely I was putting forward the position that his knowledge of the situation came from overwhelmingly biased and one-sided sources. ie. The American media. Whereas Buzz insisted that American media was fair, and Europe was just riddled with anti-semitism.

I pointed out that studies had shown the one-sidedness of American media, that Israeli deaths were 9.9 times more likely to be reported than Palestinian ones, etc.. Buzz countered by saying that 59% of Europeans thought Israel was the biggest threat to world peace. And I pointed out that if Americas news were more balanced in its coverage, then that statistic might not be a shock, and might even be reflected in the US.

Studies and reports can be ignored or denied (see Cheneys denial of Amnesty International's report on Gitmo, for example) So I was challenged to do one month of comparitive reporting on the Israeli situation. I'll copy here reports of everything that I see in the media, and Buzz can check off what ever appears in the US, and what doesn't. And at the end of the month, we'll tally up the scores. Buzz, you might want to get yourself a blog just for the month at least, so you can plag tag-a-long.

Lastly, anyone who even attempts to suggest that I am anti-semitic will be mocked until my fingers bruise.
posted by Manchild at 8:00 AM