MEDIA WATCH

WMERA: Reversing Reality: Newspaper Coverage of Israel and Palestine

Recently, the Bay Area-based organization If Americans Knew conducted statistical studies of two local newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News. The results showed a consistently inaccurate and highly distorted picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the news coverage of both papers. In every category examined, Israeli deaths were covered at far higher rates—2 to 25 times greater—than Palestinian ones.

The San Francisco Chronicle gave readers a false sense of parity between Israelis and Palestinians by reporting nearly equal numbers of deaths on both sides, despite the fact that Palestinians are being killed at a rate three to four times greater than Israelis.

The San Jose Mercury News, analysis revealed, actually inverted the death rates in its front-page headlines.

The fact that the media have been criticized by partisans on both sides of the issue has made it difficult for the largely non-aligned American public to evaluate the quality of the reporting they receive on this issue. For this reason, If Americans Knew has begun issuing report cards on media coverage of this critically important conflict. The studies, which examine six-month time periods, are based on quantitative criteria, in order to refute any charges of subjective interpretation.