Thank you Alex

Thank you Alex for commenting on my previous post! I'm really sorry to hear that you never received a response from the IDS regarding their slanted reporting in their nation world section. I actually work at the IDS and brought the issue up to the editor in chief. She informed me that 1) this was most likely the editors selecting the first AP stories that they see to publish in their press, 2) she would pass the message on to the staff, and 3) that the most effective way to make my opinion known is through writing a letter to the editor. I've copied and pasted the letter I wrote the IDS but I also know that they seldom print these letters unless they receive several on the same issue. As you still clearly feel passionate about the subject, I'd like to ask you to send in another letter. In fact, I'd like to ask ANYONE who feels comfortable reading this to do the same. Feel free to paraphrase my thoughts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To The Editors of the IDS:

I am disappointed by the choice of articles the IDS chose to publish on the situation in the Gaza Strip early this week. The Associated Press articles clearly took a biased approach in reporting Israel’s entrance into the Palestinian-governed region, and by choosing to print these articles, along with the similarly biased photographs that accompanied them, readers were put in the position of forming a ill-informed bias

The lead to Monday’s article “Palestinians suspend peace talks with Israel as Gaza death toll mounts” began, “Israel sent missiles slamming into the office of Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Sunday, pressing on with an offensive that has killed nearly 70 Palestinians in two days.” This text is not falsely reporting on the situation. Rather, it is shining light onto a single side of a long, drawn out story. By reading this passage a reader cannot grasp a fair, unbiased image of the events taking place. Even by reading the remainder of the article, it is impossible to visualize both the Israeli and Palestinian side of this situation. In addition to reading the IDS’ coverage of world news, I also turned to The New York Times and read the article, “As Israelis Pull Out of Gaza, Hamas Celebrates Its Rocketry,” which presented two sides of this event. This newspaper stated the cold, hard facts of the difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip, and allowed the reader to contemplate whether or not he or she would side with the Israeli or the Palestinian cause. The IDS articles did not do this. Rather, they direct the readers sympathy towards the Palestinian strife and only in the final line of the article is the reader informed of another side of the story. (The article ended by stating “About 50 rockets and mortars were fired Saturday, injuring six Israelis.”)

I am NOT arguing for or against the rights of the Palestinians or Israelis. I am however criticizing the IDS for pushing a single view onto its readers, which in this scenario happened to take the side of Palestinians living in Gaza.

This week the IDS dictated an anti-Israel bias as it chose to report on a complex issue while presenting a narrow viewpoint. I am not here to say that the Israel Defense Force made the right decision when they entered Gaza, but rather to point out that the Israeli border towns of Sderot and Ashkelon have been plummeted by missiles shot by Palestinian terrorists living in the Gaza region for over a year now. When I pick up the IDS, I want to know that I am absorbing stories in their entirety, not as half-truths. I believe that our campus newspaper strives to uphold neutral and democratic values in reporting on issues, and I hope that the editors take this into consideration in the future when selecting stories and photographs from the Associated Press.