Media / Media Bias
The Toronto Star and "Jewish extremists"
by Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor,
Saturday, August 6, 2005
On
Thursday, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, Eden Natan-Zada, shot and killed four
Israeli Arabs on a bus before he himself was killed by the crowd that gathered
when the incident took place. The young soldier had been AWOL from the Israeli
army since he had found out that he would be taking part in this month's
withdrawal of settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Using
an AP report, The Toronto Star reported the incident under the heading of "Jewish
extremist shoots 4 Israeli Arabs dead in bus". In addition to the headline, the
Star used the words "extreme" or
"extremists" a total of four times (and the word "militant" once) in describing
Jews in Israel.
The
more neutral news sources referred to Natan-Zada as "an Israeli soldier" or
words to that effect. Even the Associated Press, in later reports dropped the "Jewish extremist"
description in favour of "an Israeli soldier".
There
would be nothing objectionable to the way the Star chose to describe the 19-year-old if the label
"extremist" wasn't limited to Jews. On the same day that the shooting occurred,
Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, released a videotape
threatening Britain with more attacks. While the Iraq War was given as one
reason for the threats, al-Zawahri also repeated the mantra that terrorism will
continue until the West leaves "all Muslim lands".
It's
not too much of a stretch to label Ayman al-Zawahri and al Qaeda as "Muslim
extremists". But the only description of al-Zawahri that the Star gave was that of being al-Qaeda's "No. 2".
In
keeping with their anti-Israeli and anti-American positions, The Toronto
Star used the word "extremist" as
much as they could in describing Eden Natan-Zada while judiciously avoiding
labelling Muslims such as Ayman al-Zawahri in the same way, even when they
clearly use Islam as the basis for their terror.
Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com
| 
