Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Reuters reports on UN finding regarding border clash; expediently switches photos

In what must be quite distressing for the agency, Reuters has had to acknowledge that, per the UN, Israel was within its own borders when the Lebanese army opened fire killing an Israeli Lieutenant Colonel and critically wounding another officer.  After reporting on this definitive finding however, Reuters returns to its usual "he said/she said" account of the incident with an amusing non sequitur from the Lebanese Information Minister:
Tareq Mitri said the area where Israel's activity took place was south of the Blue Line "but is Lebanese territory".
Makes perfect sense.

On the same URL where Reuters had published a picture of the Israeli army crane with a caption indicating the agency was in the process of "clarifying" the border location, Reuters has now removed the picture and replaced it with a photo of the crying daughter of a Lebanese soldier killed in the clash.  The not-so subliminal message: The Israelis were technically justified in defending against an unprovoked attack by the Lebanese army BUT... look at the pain and suffering they've caused.

Upstanding journalism.

UPDATE 11:20 AM: In an effort to rationalize the non sequitur above, Reuters edits the original story, adding:
Israel and Lebanon dispute parts of the Blue Line.
To be clear, there is no formal dispute with respect to the UN-drawn border at the point where the violence took place.

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