Wednesday, June 15, 2016

How To Spin and Bias The News

Here's an excerpt from a headline and lead-in from and AP story:

Theater & Dance
Israel culture minister probes troupes that shun settlementsBy Associated Press June 15

JERUSALEM — Israel’s polarizing culture minister has dispatched a contested questionnaire to theaters and dance troupes to find out whether they are performing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a first step toward changing regulations that will allow her to penalize cultural institutions that refuse to perform there.

I have placed in bold the words that were employed in an unfair fashion to affect how the reader should comprehend this story.  They are suggestive words, forcing one to arrive at a conclusion not necessarily supported by facts.

You have been warned.

And since it appears in dozens of outlets (I checked and saw Washington Post, ABC, UK's Daily Mail, etc.), without a change in verbs, adjectives or nouns, the semantic subversion is wide and extensive.

A Communist MK is simply noted as:
Dov Khenin, an opposition lawmaker,

The story also includes something else pertinent, that the cultural institutions were

asked whether they have refrained from performing in the northern and southern peripheries of the country 

Your "news".



1 comment:

Shtrudel said...

Is it really that "strange" that when a government subsidizes theatre and dance troupes it wants to insure that these troupes do not exclude certain groups in the population from being able to enjoy the subsidized art?!...

Maybe somebody should point out to these troupes that if they want the freedom to not perform for all Israeli audiences they have the option of not applying for the government subsidy?!...