Hezbollywood - Behind the Scenes

EU Referendum has just finished their3 week effort to document the Hezbollah play reported in the world press as the "Massacre At Qana". It's here.

If you get the gist after the first few parts, skip ahead to "Part 7" aka "Caught In the Act", where my favorite actor, Mr. Green Helmet gets caught directing in front of the camera.

There's the APs first attempt at crushing the Mr. Green Helmet story, where AP Hack-In-Training described "Abu Shadi Jradi pulled bodies out of wreckage for hours..."

And the second attempt to cleanse Mr. Green Helmut with this AP write-up on Salam Daher, saying he's a natural hero, who dug for hours to recover bodies.

Is it Abu Shadi Jradi or Salam Daher? How good can AP be on fact checking if they can't even get his name right. And if he's a resuce working, how come there are hundreds of pictures of Qana, hours of video, not one showing him digging. Scores of pictures showing him carrying bodies, with great emotion. Ok - sometimes taking detours over harsher / more picturesque terrain, sure. From one staging area to another, sure. But digging, nah.

Which leads us to Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive hack for Associated Press, says "that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described" (see this).

She also said "It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," Guess it's fine to sit thousands of miles away and not actually review the arguments, or use your brain, but you can say that nothing hokey happened a degree of accuracy.

From the photo evidence on the web, these were not unstaged events, with the media critically recording what was going on. It was choreographed, scripted, with each news organization given time to get their shots, with clear lines of sight. Over and over.

But really, go take a look at EU Refererndum. It's got much more info, and I'm just summarizing what they said.

UNIFIL to save the day. Yeah, that'll happen.

So the UN has passed a resolution today, calling for the Israeli withdrawl to happen in coordination with the Lebanese Army moving in, aided by UNIFL, augmented to 15,000 soldiers, under an extended mandate.

Wikipedia entry on UNIFIL:

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was created by the United Nations, with the adoption of Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 on 19 March 1978, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore the international peace and security, and help the Lebanese Government restore its effective authority in the area.[1] The first UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978; these troops were reassigned from other UN peacekeeping operations in the area (namely UNEF and UNDOF).[1]

They've been doing a wonderful job of restoring the peace and enabling the Lebanese government from to restore authority in the area.

But, sounds like not all members of UNIFIL were so enamored with the role. Remember the UNIFIL base that was hit by the IAF, killing 4 observers? 1 week prior to the bombing, one of the observers (Canadian Maj. Hess-von Kruedener) sent an email to a former collegue, lamenting about the way Hezbollah has been launch missles from right next to their post, and then hiding behind it. Remarkably, he comments on the Israeli restraint, "The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity." (Summary here)

Bloggers turning the tide

The American Thinker has an interesting article on Mr. Green Helment, including links to a Washington Post Op-Ed (Framing The Storey), as well as a clips showing Mr GH clearly directing the TV crews to keep filming, and get better shots! from Sweetness & Light

Catch the news about IDF finding Iranian Revolutionary Guards amongts the Hezbollah dead? Here's a link to the story.

How about the video of rockets being fired from Kfar Kana (Qana / Quana), and the rocket launchers then being driven into residential areas and hidden? Map showing why Kfar Qana is key to Hezbollah, and some IDF videos available here

More links to media hijinx...

Is Adnan Hajj 2 people, or is has he sold photos under more than 1 name? @ The Jawa report

Mr Green Helmut in action with "This Ones Alive" @ Pajamas Media

Same Building, destroyed twice @ PowerLine

Bridge Hit, damaged car appears, people run over bridge, but bridge is gone, damaged car now someplace else @ PowerLine

More Adnan Haff photo editing @ Jawa Report

Hezbollywood - What really happened at Qana? @ OpEd News

Hezbollywood 2 - The Directors Cut @ EU Referndum

There are many great blogs out there talking about these items, so I'll stop with the links - if you want to find more, try Google

But, back to the issues:

1. Hezbollah and / or it's supporters photo-shopping photos to make them look worse
2. Hezbollah and / or it's supporters are clearly staging events
3. Hezbollah is controlling media access in southern Lebanon and Beirut
4. Major news services are *NOT* using any independent fact checking, or even the basic review of photos their using, in the rush to get the news out
5. Major news services feel they have *NO* responsibility to go back and admit their mistakes, fraud, or the less sensational truth when it comes out.

Media Manipulation II

If it bleeds, it leads.

One of the key mantra's of many major news organizations these days, especially the NY Times. I haven't bothered looking at the times to much in years, but just the a few days ago, a friend mentioned that he was getting tired of all the front page, above the fold photos of the hurt or injured in Lebanon.

Always showing just injuries on 1 side is clearly biased.
Showing clearly staged photos is fraud.
New York Times Busted in Hezbollah Photo Fraud

Media Spin - What Dubya can learn from Nasrallah

I've been avoiding doing a political blog for a while, but am finally getting fed up with junk news, staged stories and photo-shoots, photo editing, and very biased reporting on the Israeli / Hezbollah war.

• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Their reported aim is to drive Israel out of the Shaba Farms area of the Golan Heights (they claim it's part of Lebanon, the UN states it's part of Syria). They are terrorists not because they fight the Israeli defense Forces, but because they launch rockets into civilian areas in Israel, not at military targets. See Wikipedia's entry on Hezbollah.
  
• Hezbollah shields itself within civilian areas of Lebanon, including Beirut and Qana, forcing Israeli counter-attacks to hit civilian areas.
  
• Hezbollah controls media access to most of southern Lebanon, as well as most of southern Beirut. They control the image, whether still photos or video. See PowerLine bloc, Little Green Footballs, et al. When the same building gets destroyed 10 days apart, and the same woman looses her house (and very different houses) 2 weeks apart, someone's putting a lot of spin on.
  
• Hezbollah and many of their supporters are barbarians. I know that sounds harsh, but I can't think of a better word. When the IDF bombs killed civilians, did you see Israelis dancing in the street and celebrating? No - you saw a government investigation, and a national discourse on it. When Hezbollah hits Haifa, or Nahariya, or Tiberias, do you see discussions on what happened and how? No, you see dancing in the streets.
  
• Hezbollah is supported, funded and armed by Syria and Iran. While Syria and Iran may not control day-to-day operations of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, their continued support (and money and weapons) shows they certainly approve of it.
  
• Iran and Syria are not peace-loving nations. "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television. (CNN, August 3rd, 2006). While many corrupt states in the Middle-East like to fan the anti-Israel / anti-Semitic flames, Iran and Syria are extreme in their blame for all problems on Israel and Jewish conspiracies.
  
• Remember the Qana attack that killed 54? Ever hear that it was 28 I'm not saying 28 isn't horrible, but responsible / reliable governments tend not to exagerrate. Know those rockets that are hitting Haifa? Know where they're coming from? Qana.
  
• How about the 40 people killed today in Houla? Or was it just one? When the Lebanese PM re-states the number, there's a lot of spin going on. You don't see the Islamic Republic News Agency printing an update though...
  
• Yes, even the US got the initial death count wrong after 9/11, but when the numbers are consistently inflated, someone's spinning every bit of news that goes by.

I'd better stop now.

But, for further reading:

Ben Caspit, on what the Israeli PM should be saying.
The American Thinker