I commented in the open thread about mistakes and shoddy editing. Here’s one.
‘Six Palestinians killed in West bank, Gaza attacks’
Was this responsible for another piece of carelessness that shows how one thing can lead to an other?
“Israel yesterday shot dead six Palestinians in two separate incidents in the West Bank”
It appeared in an anti-Israel editorial in the Observer the next day.
Of course the two incidents were separate, but one was in the West Bank, the other in the Gaza strip, and a comma is different from a forward slash. But if I’m right, it suggests that carelessness, combined with agenda-driven churnalism is alive and well, and that some of us don’t bother to read beyond a headline.
Sometimes these things go beyond parody.
In pictures: Egypt-Gaza border clashes The picture is worth a thousand words but only if accompanied by a caption.
Egyptian Border Police and Palestinians have clashed at the Egypt-Gaza border over the delay of an international aid convoy in the Gaza Strip. Without minimalising the influence of Galloping George, Reuters claims the protest was against the wall Egypt is building to stop smugling through tunnels. I tend to agree.
The violence reportedly began after Palestinian protesters in Rafah started throwing stones across the border at Egyptian security forces. One wonders why live fire against stone throwing (across a barbed wire and concrete fence) is not condemned by the BBC as disproportionate. It looks to me that the guy in the photo is throwing sand. That is really disproportionate!
An Egyptian Border Guard is shot and killed by Palestinian gunfire, Egyptian officials say. Once again the ubiquitous ‘say’ to discredit unarguable fact. What is unclear or ambiguous about lowering a stretcher?
Egypt and Israel impose a strict blockade on Gaza, which Israel says is aimed at weakening Hamas. Some have claimed the belated recognition that Egypt has a border with Gaza is progress. So what does Egypt ‘say’ is the reason for the blockade?