Yesterday CNN Headline News reported that the refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared “is home to some 40,000 militants.” Most US media outlets simply conflated the two. So when the US sponsored Lebanese army was indiscriminately bombing the camp, there would be no way to identify one from the other. They’re all the same, militants, Palestinians, refugees, terrorists.

Not one US media outlet reported on where the refugees came from or how they came to be refugees. Not one outlet reported on the US role in maintaining the horrific conditions in the camps that all did report on.

The worst of all I think was John Roberts this morning quoting George W Bush on the need to “drain the swamps,” referring of course to the refugee camps. I’ll provide the video if you want it.

This clip from CNN’s Situation Room was aired today after they had time to research, produce (or over produce) and check sources. This is what they came up with. And this is one of the better reports.

CNN State Department Correspondent Zain Verge :

The US sees Iran and Syria as the spoilers - using militias under their control to light fires throughout the region.

NOTE: the leader of Fatah al Islam are wanted in Syria.

Spoilers of what exactly?? The fantastic job mission/crusade/whatever you want to call it, that we are doing in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

“Lighting fires…”

What are 150,000 US troops doing in Iraq? What is the US and Israel doing in the West Bank and Gaza? What is the US and NATO doing in Afghanistan? What is the US doing everywhere?

And how exactly are Syria and Iran “spoilers?”

Zain Verge again:

“…by distracting the US and its allies.”

I kid you not.

Then it gets worse; Barbara Starr, CNN’s Pentagon mouthpiece — I cannot bring myself to say correspondent. Drama, urgency, worry from the Pentagon. THEY’VE CREATED THIS SITUATION!

And Wolf!

Evidently Palestinian refugee camps just sprouted up in Lebanon, because, I don’t know; maybe Palestinians thought it would be fun to live in a refugee camp in total poverty still holding the keys to their homes in what is now Israel.

But the worst was really John Roberts interviewing Brett Sadler and quoting George W. Bush on the need to drain the “swamps” that are the Palestinian refugee camps.

How about returning them to their rightful homes!!!!

CNN coverage of Gaza

Gaza breaking down

Journalists under siege

Attack on PM house

It just continues.

Ignored almost entirely by the US media have been significant events concerning the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. An occupation which is never mentioned in any of the reports on the “mouse”.

Israel plans Jerusalem settlement
By Laila El-Haddad in Gaza , Al Jazeera

Israel has announced plans to build 20,000 new settler units on the outskirts of occupied East Jerusalem, prompting condemnation from Palestinians.

World Bank criticises Israel over Palestinian economy
by Mark Tran, Guardian Unlimited

In a harsh report (pdf), the bank criticised Israel for extending legitimate security measures to expand and protect settlement activity and the relatively unhindered movement of settlers and other Israelis in and out of the West Bank.

Shot West Bank woman ‘loses baby’
BBC

A pregnant Palestinian woman lost her baby after being shot by Israeli troops during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials said.

The Latest installment from CNN:

Wolf Blitzer opens by describing the mouse as a

“menacing lead character on a kids show in Gaza”

which

“raised eyebrows around the world”

and in one episode

“mimics shooting Israeli’s with AK 47’s”

All of this may be true and the cartoon may be despicable but it is still a far cry from the reality of hate that the children of the West Bank and Gaza experience every day from the Israeli army, Jewish settlers, the US imposed blockade and subsequent starvation etc.

Evidently the Palestinian Minister of Information, Moustafa Barghouti, acted to suspend the show until it could be revised. Hamas responded Friday by continuing the show and adding some context.

They showed the video of the aftermath of a Palestinian family being blown up on a Gaza beach last summer. This is the incident which led ultimately to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

In his usual style of reporting everything from an Israeli perspective, Ben Wederman never mentions the word “occupation” and states that Palestinians blame Israel for the incident on the beach but that Israel denies it.

There were reports by objective third parties which clearly asign blame for the incident to an Israeli artillery shell. Chris Mcrgreal, writing for the Guardian, and Human Rights Watch, investigated the denials of the Israeli army and demonstrated them to be rediculous. Any responsible journalist would have noted this.

However, in US media, once Israel denies something, that is the end of the story. It happened with Rachel Corrie, it happened with Mohammad Dura and it happened with the family of Huda Ghalia.

Mr. McGreal notes the effect of Mohammad Dura on the Gaza Beach incident.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, initially apologised for the killings but the military swiftly realised it was confronting another PR disaster to rival that of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old boy who died in his father’s arms amid a barrage of gunfire six years ago and became the first iconic victim of the intifada.

The army quickly convened a committee to investigate the deaths on the beach and almost as swiftly absolved itself of responsibility.

The Guardian and Human Rights Watch carefully go thru the evidence including the timing of the incident and army records of shelling. They were able to identify the shell

From the number of shells counted beforehand by the survivors, Mr Garlasco believes the killer shell was one the army records as fired at 4.34pm.

The Israeli’s have made very good use of the US media’s proclivity to just report what they say. So the lesson learned by the Israeli government and the Bush administration has been to just keep repeating something, no matter how easy it is to disprove it, and the media will keep reporting it. Whatever it is then becomes part of the dialogue. The media make it so.

Finally Mr. Wederman closes his Mickey Mouse segment with the very sad acknowledgement :

Hamas TV may be exploiting the trauma of Gaza’s children but the ground was already fertile, If anything, this weeks program underscores a simple reality. Hamas is set on teaching a new generation of Palestinian children that co-existence is simply not an option.

Isn’t that precisely the message of the occupation?

CNN

Wolf blitzer reported that Herodion is in the West bank. Unfortunately, Ben Wederman once again exposed his one sided brain. He can only think in terms of Israel. In this case he mentions the break from tensions that Israeli’s are getting from the discovery and change of subject. It’s the palestinians who are under occupation. It’s the palestinians being killed, arrested, abused, …….

Finally when they impose the current map of the region over the map of Herod’s so called kingdom, the West Bank and Gaza are once again just called Israel

BBC

Interesting that the BBC reported that Herodion is in the “occupied” West Bank. Can you imagine CNN doing something like that???

Another little overlooked detail in these reports was written about by Benny Ziffer in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Basically, the excavation being carried out in occupied territory is robbery.

The discovery of Herod’s tomb, or to be more precise a few fragments of dressed stone that one archaeology professor has concluded are the remains of Herod’s sarcophagus, have preoccupied television news and magazine programs since Tuesday. Amid the general zeal of the Londons and the Kirschenbaums and their talking-heads colleagues for demonstrating their mastery of the history of the Second Temple period, and to revive debates from their youth movement days over whether Herod was good or bad for the Jews, one important detail was forgotten, or almost forgotten: that the excavation of this tomb of Herod was carried out in occupied territory, where Israel has no moral right to dig and certainly not to remove archaeological artifacts. In the enlightened world, what Israel is doing is called robbery. …

Of course he blames the vast Arab conspiracy at CNN and talks to the Israeli propagandist from MEMRI who trashes Octavia Nassar, CNN’s token Arab, for not knowing 1 from 2.

But watch the video by clicking here

Since Paula Zahn’s show last night, CNN has been running a video clip provided for them by MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch, two pro-Israel propaganda groups. The clip is of a new cartoon airing on Al Aqsa TV in Gaza.

CNN never even bothered to get independent verification of the translation and of course it is disputed. Every CNN show ran the clip with different commentary, though each expressed equal outrage.

The most disappointing however was CNN International. Rosemary Church seemed particularly upset by the message as described by Jim Clancy as a “powerful message of HATE, RESISTANCE and DEFIANCE”, being received by children.

Does Jim Clancy or Rosemay Church really believe that it takes propaganda to teach Palestinian children to hate the occupiers? On a daily basis these children see their homes demolished their friends killed their parents arrested or killed and all humiliated.

What they see on a daily basis is real hate being paid for by the American people, protected by the American government and demonstrated to them through the use of F16 fighter jets, Blackhawk helicopters, tanks and M16s.

They don’t need a cartoon to teach them hate, they have the Israeli army. YET, most do not. They wear baseball caps of US sports teams, they talk of visiting the US and they ask everyone who visits “why we do this to them.”

I did not see CNN and Fox and Huffington Post and America Blog asking why 9 Palestinians were killed over a two day period just a week and a half ago.

What do you think their children felt? Do you think they wanted to bring flowers to the occupiers?

So many questions.

Why is CNN asking John Bolton his opinion on anything?

He demonstrates clearly by this interview why he has no business in public office. He ridicules the British government for negotiating the release of soldiers captured by Iran. In all liklihood, they will get out unharmed this way and so far, from what we can see, they’ve been treated well. They are certainly not being stripped, leashed and piled into pyramids. Read Terry Jones in Sunday’s Guardian:

Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilized bunch

Why is Nancy Pelosi traveling to Syria to bring a message from the Israeli Prime Minister?

Why didn’t Ms. Pelosi travel to Ramallah?

Accoring to YNet news, Ms. Pelosi has a perfect record on Israel.

In an internet discussion with the pro-Israel lobby to the Democratic party, Pelosi emphasized that “a strong relationship between the United States and Israel has long been supported by both Democrats and Republicans.

“America’s commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel is unwavering, regardless of which party is in power. However, the war in Iraq has made both America and Israel less safe,” she declared.

Leading up to his trip to Iraq, John McCain asserted that the American people were not getting an accurate picture of what was happening in Iraq. He said there were places in Baghdad where he could walk freely.

So off to Iraq he went to go for a walk “freely”

The problem was that, wearing a kevlar vest, he took armored humvees, helicopter gunships, and was surrounded by inner and outer perimeter security so he could take his walk.

On ABC news, Michael O’ Hanlon from the Brookings insitute referred to McCain’s statements as “happy talk”

ABC News actually reported an increase in violence.

CNN’s Michael Ware, who has been in Baghdad for years now put it in a different perspective. He pointed out that politicians have been doing this in Baghdad for years. They come with an enormous security detail and walk thru one part of town.

Then he had to answer a question about whether he heckled Senator McCain at a press conference. It was reported on a blog (read Drudge) which sourced an unnamed McCain staffer. He said that he did not, that he did not even get to ask a question as the press conference ended when he raised his hand.

“Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West”

This past December, CNN ran a horrific segment on the film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West”. Kyra Philips devoted 10 minutes of valuable airtime to the film but made no attempt to provide any objectivity or balance and simply gushed and fawned over the producer as well as Nonie Darwish, one of those featured in the film. Phillips literally peddled the propaganda of the film as established fact. CNN did not provide a single voice to question any aspect of the film.

Another Palestinian featured in the film is Walid Shoebat, a man who travels extensively at the expense of various pro-Israeli groups speaking as a reformed Palestinian terrorist. Writing for “Counterpunch” in 2004, Will Youmans, who now writes for Kabobfest raises many questions about the legitimacy of Shoebat’s story.

According to Khody Akhavi, writing in yesterday’s Interpress News Service Agency,

neither station disclosed the film’s connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.

HonestReporting marketed “Obsession” but denies it produced or funded the project.

“We initially gave some guidance to the ‘Obsession’ staff,” wrote Pesach Bensen, editor of Mediabackspin.com, the organisation’s weblog, in an email response to IPS. “We’re thrilled to see it succeed beyond our wildest expectations.”

When “Obsession” was released last year, news pundits and anchors on FOX and CNN praised the independent film for its candid look at Islamic militancy. FOX incorporated footage from the film into a one-hour special, which aired seven times in November 2006. CNN’s right-wing pundit Glen Beck called it “one of the most important films of our time”. Sean Hannity of FOX News described it as “shocking beyond belief”.

While such enthusiasm from right-wing talk show personalities comes as no surprise, mainstream cable news programmes also appeared to accept, without question, the premise of the film, which explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Consider, for example, CNN news anchor Kyra Phillips’s exhortations during an adulatory interview in December 2006 with Raphael Shore, the film’s producer: “I encourage everybody to see this movie you definitely get an incredible education from watching this film The movie left many of us speechless We appreciate what you’ve done.”

HonestReporting was founded in 2000 by British university students who objected to what they considered anti-Israel coverage by European media in response to the second Palestinian intifada.

Read the complete article here

Some quotes about the film from the film’s website. None of these media folk took two seconds to to even consider a critical look at such an obvious piece of propaganda. It’s no wonder Americans are oblivious about what is happening in the Middle East.

Kyra Phillips, Anchor, CNN Newsroom

“Heart wrenching…I encourage everybody to see this film…you definitely get an incredible education by watching this film…the movie left many of us speechless…we appreciate what you’ve done. ”

Monica Crowley, MSNBC Anchor and Host of the Monica Crowley Show, Westwood One Radio

“This is the film the enemy doesn’t want you to see. Obsession lays bare the true nature of the threat from radical Islam, and the true intentions of those who embrace it: expansion of their heinous ideology by the sword. This film takes an unblinking look at their past, current, and even more frightening, future actions. For your security and the security of the country, Obsession is a must-see. ”

Nolan Finley, The Detroit News, editorial page
“This movie ought to be shown . in every community center, every school, every church, synagogue and mosque, every living room in America.”

Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Show, CNN Healine News
” I believe this is the most important movie of our lifetime, I was born in 1964, I can’t tell you of a movie that I think is more important. ”

The US just can’t help pandering to the right wing Israeli government. Still, Israel is not happy that the US does not go far enough.

CNN

International Herald Tribune

The first fractures have surfaced in the Israeli and American approaches to the new Palestinian unity government, with Israel’s cabinet voting overwhelmingly to boycott it, while the U.S. Consulate here refused to rule out contacts with some moderate Palestinians who are now serving as ministers.