Lebanon Border Incidents Expose Poor Journalism

December 16, 2013 12:08 by Simon Plosker

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Shlomi Cohen

IDF soldier, 31-year-old Shlomi Cohen, was killed on Sunday night after a Lebanese army sniper opened fire on his vehicle as it drove along the Israeli side of the Lebanese border near Rosh Hanikra.
While the full details of the incident are still unfolding, some of the reporting leaves a lot to be desired.
The Independent stated:

It is not clear what the target of the shooting was although local media reports speculated that Israeli troops had crossed the border.

What exactly were the “local media reports?” They certainly weren’t Israeli as none of these were reporting anything other than an unprovoked attack from the Lebanese side.
The Times of Israel supplies a possible answer:

Hezbollah’s al-Manar news agency claimed an IDF patrol had crossed into Lebanese territory and was fired upon by the Lebanese Armed Forces.

So it seems that the journalist did not want to admit that his “local media reports” were probably taken directly from a terrorist organization’s propaganda outfit rather than a credible news source.
The Independent is guilty of “news laundering” – if the source of his information isn’t credible, why is the information deemed to be credible?
Many hours later, with reports coming in of a separate border skirmish involving the IDF and Lebanese forces, trust the BBC to produce a headline like this:

An all too familiar trick that leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader that Israel is the aggressor. The BBC’s initial knee-jerk reaction to the story demonstrates the framework through which it views Israel.

A short time later, the headline was replaced with the more neutral “Troops shot on Israel-Lebanon border” but the first headline gives an insight into the BBC’s thought process.

UPDATE

The Times of London reported on the border incidents with the following headline:

The opening paragraph of the article states:

Israeli troops shot two Lebanese soldiers in retaliation for the fatal cross-border shooting of an Israeli soldier last night by an armed man believed to be a Lebanese army sniper.

“Reprisal” and “retaliation” implies that Israeli soldiers were motivated by sheer revenge – an eye for an eye if you will. This is an inaccurate and malicious portrayal of the IDF that yet again paints Israel as an aggressor.