Dec 26 Media Critique: "Pallywood Xmas Special"

"Wire service photos demonstrate the distortions of the media."

Of course they do. Like this .

The photo caption says “tackles” which is the evil media distortion.

Pretty lame huh?

HR’s preference is another caption which uses the word “blocks” instead of “tackles”. The imbeciles at HR should take a look at a thesaurus.

But that’s not all folks,

Nowhere are you able to get an accurate picture of the size of the demonstration or otherwise. Photos of the event, such as the one below from Reuters are framed as close-ups giving the impression of a large turnout even when closer examination, such as the previous photos, may suggest the opposite

No. No picture, the articles just tell readers the size of the gathering,

About 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists attended the rally in the village of Um Salomona, near Bethlehem…

It’s all an evil conspiracy,

A good example of how the news can be distorted by photographers comes from a demonstration staged by Palestinians near Bethlehem on 21 December 2007. Pallywood has signed up one of the most visible and loved symbols of the holidays - Santa Claus. Wait until the cameras are in position and then confront Israeli soldiers.

Um, it’s a protest, as all the stories made that perfectly clear, even in the headlines.

This is pathetic stuff, even by HR’s appallingly low standards.

And to top it off,

Also notice how the Palestinian Santa appears to be well trained and media savvy - while managing to instigate dramatic photos of being "tackled" by Israeli soldiers, Santa suddenly becomes an advocate of peace and hope when interviewed by a Reuters cameraman. Such is the sophistication of the Palestinian propaganda machine that Santa is able to provoke violent confrontation while, at the same time, talking about peace.

Smell the desperation?

Horrible ‘Palestinian Santa’ stood in the way of peace-loving IDF soldiers armed with M-16s. Oh, the violence! After this shocking rampage he then had the temerity to speak of “peace and hope”. Beware the “sophistication of Palestinian propaganda machine”. Thankfully we have the totally objective HR to tell us what is really going on.

Can I laugh now?

This is all about the unsophistication of the blindly pro-Israeli hasbara machine. Focus on a tiny element of a story over which you can confect some controversy to distract from the larger story – peaceful Palestinian protests being conducted on their own land against an Israeli constructed wall that had been found to be illegal under international law.

Which is why they so desperately scramble to construct these ‘media critiques’, even if they are embarrassingly stupid. Anything to muddy the waters.