5 January 2009 1:39 AM, PST | From Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news
The trade publication Editor & Publisher has editorially chastised the U.S. news media for providing "largely one-sided coverage" of the conflict in Gaza and "little editorializing or commentary." Only CNN and MSNBC, the editorial said, had "provided some helpful balance" in their coverage, but the broadcast news networks' Sunday morning programs, it observed, featured Democratic leaders who "said little, or nothing, critical of Israel." Such imbalanced coverage, E&P said, comes in the face of condemnation of the "disproportionate" Israeli attacks by Amnesty International and equally strong editorial criticism in the Israeli daily Haaretz and outrage by its columnists. Meanwhile, on CNN, correspondent Paula Hancocks complained Sunday that "You can't cover a war from the sidelines," then reportedn that "the Israeli military has been coming by on a daily basis and trying to push us back even further. So not only are we not allowed in Gaza, but they're trying to push us back further from the border itself." The conflict, however, is being covered closely by the Arab news media. Indeed, an English-language newspaper in Dubai, Gulf News, ran a feature today (Monday) on whether children should be exposed to the pictures of civilian carnage appearing on television throughout the day. On its website, the newspaper asks, "How can parents balance the tasks of shielding children from shocking images and keeping them informed of happenings around the world?"
