UGLY DOUBLE STANDARDS

Today's Age has an Op Ed from Jonathan Freedland - The ugly double standard behind the Goldstone Report, a very balanced and sensible opinion piece coming from the Guardian and from a journalist who got things so wrong with his recent coverage of the Palestine Papers. There's also a marvelous cartoon from Spooner that makes fun of Goldstone's current predicament.

What a pity it is that the Age's own coverage of the conflict isn't as balanced as Freedland's piece!

The news reports filed on the Hamas attack on an Israeli school bus by the Australian and the Age highlight the difference between honest reporting and poor agenda based journalism that has had the effect of making terrorist thugs look respectable. Remember, this is about an attack on a school bus with an anti-tank missile.




John Lyons in the Oz - School bus attack may spark Gaza war

THE possibility of another Gaza war heightened yesterday after Hamas used an anti-tank missile to hit a school bus in Israel and fired a further 50 rockets.

Last night, tensions between Israel and Hamas reached a new high after Hamas claimed responsibility for hitting the bus and injuring the driver and a 16-year-old boy.

Israel immediately responded with air attacks on Gaza which Palestinian media said killed five people and injured dozens.

The missile was a Russian-made laser-guided Kornet. Most missiles from Gaza are often made locally from scrap metal and are usually inaccurate.

Hamas said last night it had convinced most of the armed factions in Gaza to agree to a ceasefire but Israel made it clear there would be further retaliation. The attack on the school bus appeared to have been intentional, given that the missile was laser-guided, and unleashed public outrage in Israel.

That's the news story. Here is what the Age published - Israel plans more strikes in Gaza Strip

Instead of a photograph of the burned out school bus or the type of missile that Hamas fired at it (heaven forbid that the sensibilities of Age readers should be hit with pictures of a school bus targeted by Palestinian terrorists), we are treated to a photograph of the wreckage of a car in far away Port Sudan with a brief mention that "Palestinian militants fired 45 rockets into Israel on Thursday, one targeting a school bus and critically injuring a 16-year-old boy," before the article moves on to other things.

Militants?

Good grief. What pack of bastards would refuse to identify as "terrorists" a government that openly admits to attacking a school bus with an anti-tank missile?

Ugly double standards indeed!