OMITTED FROM THE TIMES: MARILYN PENN
http://politicalmavens.com/
On Thursday, June 21, the Times offered a front page article entitled “Incivility Infests Life in the U.S. on Trump’s Cue” , along with a heads-up about “The Art of Hooking Up” that appears on the front page of its Arts section. That review is of an installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale devoted to the “places and practices of casual sex,” specifically gay hookups with “colorful condoms and other sexual accoutrements” scattered on the floor of the pavilion. Although there are 71 participants in this biennale, in keeping with the Times’ devotion to promoting all things gay, this is the one it chose to highlight. More items deemed newsworthy on that day included violence in Nicaragua, the Taliban killing of 30 in Afghanistan and the omission of “horrific details” from the UN report on Syrian chemical attacks.
Missing from the news altogether was the fact that on June 20th, Hamas fired 45 rockets into Israel, aimed at heavily populated areas near the border, one landing near a kindergarten. This omission is particularly notable since the Times handled Hamas’ storming Israel’s border fence with burning tires and explosive kites with daily front page coverage featuring gruesome pictures of Gazan fatalities and wounded “civilians.” It called this military attack a “protest” and labeled Israel’s retaliatory measures as disproportionate, barely mentioning that the majority of Gaza’s “civilian” activity was performed by Hamas terrorists continuing their calculated use of women and children in lethal activity to arouse international sympathy. As the Arabs have repeatedly stressed, their love of martyrdom and death give them a decided edge over Israeli values of choosing and preserving life.
Readers of the Times have become accustomed to an increasingly editorial voice permeating its news sections, but when a newspaper completely ignores and excludes a major military attack, it isn’t just slanting the news but burying it. It’s distressing to see how many journalists are willing to go along with this subversion of their professional standards – how long until a MeToo movement shows them how to regain their self-respect?
Comments are closed.
