Why do certain stories about Israel get underreported by the MSM?
What is considered by some as the worst form of media bias, bias by omission leads certain stories to go out of sight and out of mind.
Hillel Halkin (pictured) of Commentary Magazine equates this violation of media objectivity with the old news maxim "if it bleeds it leads."
According to Halkin:
"It made big headlines in Israel on Wednesday, February 21, but I don?t imagine it got more than scant attention, if that much, anywhere else."
?Police thwart major suicide attack.? That?s not front-page news in America or England?unless, that is, it happened in New York or London. If it happened in Tel Aviv, you need at least a bomb going off, and preferably a death or two, for anyone elsewhere to sit up and take notice. And this explains a certain paradox: the more successful Israel?s army and security services are in preventing deadly acts of Palestinian terror against Israelis, the more the world looks upon the means of prevention as vindictive and unnecessary harassment of Palestinians on Israel?s part."
"The world hears mostly about the nasty things. ?Dozens of Israeli lives saved yesterday? doesn?t play well with the editors of the New York Times or the Guardian in London. We in Israel, who know those lives could have been our own, our friends?, or our family?s, have a different take on it."