Why do Jewish and Israeli websites use biased newsfeeds?

[Desp]

Why do Jewish and Israeli websites use biased newsfeeds?
I feel that in doing so, the bias against Israel is only perpetuated.
I am sick of hearing about Terror Attacks, where the victims included the Terrorists, or even in some cases only the Terrorists.
Why have headlines from Arab Newspapers, and newspapers/media who clearly have an Anti-Israel stance?
It does not promote Israel's stand whatsoever and is usually only damaging to Israel.

[Vic]

You must always define whom are you communicating with and what your goals are. As a Jew you can't just block the outside reality completely, therefore you have to read what your surroundings do and learn how to deal with it. Otherwise you would be creating an exclusive dream world for yourself and people who think like you.

[ibrodsky]

Originally posted by Desp

I am sick of hearing about Terror Attacks, where the victims included the Terrorists, or even in some cases only the Terrorists.


Personally, I like attacks in which only the terrorists die.

However, don't despair. The U.S. and Israel are working on crushing all terrorist organizations. When the terrorist savages are all dead, you won't hear about them anymore.

[Desp]

Vic,
In the UK and Europe the media is generally anti-Israel, therefore I am perfectly aware of what is happening in the world, from the the BBC, Sky News, The Independent, The Guardian et al.
I would just like to see more of the Israeli point of view being reported in Israeli and Jewish sites.

When a terror attack has been carried out against Israelis, I personally couldn't care what happened to the terrorist, what age he was, or where his head landed, I want to know about the Israeli victims, what I can do to help , etc. That is what I'd like to see more of in Jewish and Israeli websites.
Would you rather have me sending donations or condolences to the terrorist families?

I liked Ibrodsky's reply much better!!!

[Vic]

Originally posted by Desp
That is what I'd like to see more of in Jewish and Israeli websites.
Would you rather have me sending donations or condolences to the terrorist families?Is that really what you want to do when you read the "Guardian"? :D

On the whole the kind of "Jewish" content you write about does not exclude keeping track of the reporting in mainstream media. Not everyone can take time to check a large selection of it for Israel-related articles on his/her own, therefore such a "standard" newsfeed does IMO make great sense. Rely on your own judgement for the rest.

As for the "Israeli point of view" - sometimes I think that there are more Israeli POVs then there are real Israelis ;)

For practical purposes - would it be a good idea to offer translations from the Israeli Hebrew press on regular basis, with the details Desp (and not only he/she) misses in mainstream reporting? What do you think?

[Mediocrates]

A key issue is official secrecy. The Israeli government is steeped in secrecy. It tends to backfire on them because it lends to an aura of conspiracy, collusion, agendas. It leads to very bad decisions and decision making processes based on information that is wrong, missing, inaccurate or undisputed. It leads to horrible PR and positions that can neither be explained nor defended. And it probably isn't necessary most of the time. They are protecting secrets that are non existent an overwhelming percentage of the time.

If the Israeli government was more forthcoming with information both good and bad it would actually help them in the long run. With more open information then the Hasbara effort would be much more effective because as it stands now we spend enormous amounts of time diputing someone else's point of view, factual distortion or outright bigotry. With more available and open information then we can build on THAT getting our messages out. As it is we have little useful information from the very people we're trying to defend, in their own defence.

[Vic]

Not quite, Mediocrates. There is a great gap between "interior" and "exterior" Israeli reporting, as anyone who can read Hebrew (or even Russian ;) ) can easily convince him/herself of. It might make sense to bridge it for the benefit of the English-speaking public.