Zionism Victoria takes ABC to task: headline “misleading and biased”
Zionism Victoria has written to ABC News to protest its online coverage of Saturday night’s fatal shooting of 42-year-old patrolman Chen Amir in Tel Aviv.
Chen Amir Photo: X
Noting a link to the online report was “misleading and biased”, Zionism Victoria President Yossi Goldfarb and Executive Director Zeddy Lawrence wrote, “Regarding the fatal shooting in Tel Aviv last night, an Israeli patrolman was fatally shot while preventing a terror attack by a gunman from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The patrolman’s partner then shot the terrorist.
“However, the link on your site reads ‘Palestinian man killed in Tel Aviv shooting that leaves another critically injured.’
“This is completely misleading and unbalanced. A more accurate link would read, ‘Israeli killed by Palestinian gunman while preventing terror attack’ or ‘Palestinian terrorist killed after fatally shooting Israeli patrolman’.
“Please rectify this as soon as possible.”
Zionism Victoria alerted the ABC to the shamefully skewed headline at around 1pm on Sunday. More than 24 hours later, the wording had still not been changed.
Goldfarb and Lawrence said, “All too often, sadly, when it comes to reporting on Israel, the story is inverted to make the perpetrator the victim and vice versa. It is fallacious coverage such as this that fuels the all-too prevalent public perception that Israel is the villain of the piece and deserves to be demonised.
In this instance, the portrayal of the terrorist as merely a casualty rather than the instigator of a violent attack that claimed the life of an Israeli officer is totally reprehensible. As our national broadcaster, we are entitled to expect far more from the ABC than spreading such misinformation, which only serves to support the biased and unbalanced propaganda efforts of Israel’s detractors.
The fact that the headline remains unchanged more than 24 hours after the ABC was notified does little to reassure us about the ABC’s commitment to objective journalism, which has often been the cause of considerable concern within the Jewish community.
It strikes particularly close to home as the real victim of Saturday night’s attack, Chen Amir, was a cousin of a well-known figure within our community, to whom we extend our sincere condolences. Our thoughts and prayers are with Chen’s family. We wish them all a long life.”
The headline now states ‘Tel Aviv shooting leaves one man critically injured and one dead’.
Some concession at least.
The ABC does this all the time. The ECAJ make formal complaints on a regular basis in this regard. I, as a self-imposed Jewish activist, from my own personal space, have files thick with complaints filed that show the facts and context of situations the ABC have misreported.. The ABC is getting worse. They obviously have an agenda. They’re not as bad as the BBC, but they’re getting there.
Yes I’ve found that too…depending on whose doing the interview, I not so long ago mentioned with controversial Rod Quinn.