The Ghost of Snapped Shot

In all my years of blogging here at Snapped Shot, I have yet to encounter a caption describing how "brutal" and "savage" a Palestinian rocket attack was, no matter how much suffering was inflicted upon the Israelis depicted.

How ironic it is, then, to see the caption to this photograph of an Israeli kindergarten, damaged by a Palestinian rocket:

Israeli police officers examine damage at a kindergarten after a rocket fired by Palestinians militants from Gaza hit the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Israeli forces pounded Gaza Strip houses, mosques and smuggling tunnels on Monday from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children as they pressed a bruising offensive against Palestinian militants. (AP Photo/Avi Roccah)

Notice that the kindergarten is completely destroyed, so the "damage" mentioned in caption seems somewhat inconsequential when compared to the complete destruction of said building.

Stack that brief mention of damage up against the handful of extremely descriptive terms used to describe Israel's counter-terror actions in the Gaza Strip, and you've got yourself one heck of a contrast. They "pound" the Gaza Strip. They "bruise" Palestinian militants. But no matter what the Palestinians have done to deserve such counterattacks, it is only Israel who will be blamed by the press.

How typical this is of our vaunted "impartial" media corps.

Update: Proving that this anti-Israeli bias is an institutional thing amongst wire stringers, here is a similar Palestinian kindergarten. Notice that the anti-Israeli terminology remains mostly according to the exact same script:

A Palestinian woman collects children's toys from a kindergarten that was damaged in an Israeli missile strike in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. Israeli aircraft kept up a relentless string of assaults on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Tuesday, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander as thousands of Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, massed along the border, waiting for a signal to attack. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

If I were the brave editor of any newspaper that was truly interested in presenting a factual and impartial story, my first action after reading captions like this would be to summarily execute my relationship with the dashingly stupid Associated Press.

All can only be fair in war when the media reports the entire story fairly.

  #Intifada