Friday, November 5, 2010

Reuters correspondents lie, cheat and steal: report

That's how Reuters correspondents typically promote a defamatory allegation about Israelis in their stories.  Take for example, this story by Ori Lewis:
Israeli interrogators abused Palestinians: report
(Reuters) - Israeli Shin Bet undercover agents have abused Palestinians during questioning at a detention center, some detainees have alleged in a report published on Tuesday by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Note how Lewis fires off a maligning accusation in the first part of both his headline and lede, asserting the abuse as fact, tacking on mitigating qualifiers only at the end of each sentence.  The objective and psychological effect of this rhetorical device is to initially hammer the reader into accepting an unproven assertion and only later to clarify that the assertion is merely a disputed claim. A claim, by the way, issued by an NGO with an anti-Israel agenda and a dubious record for veracity.

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