Mediocrates
09-14-2011, 10:07 AM
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=2111
The New York Times has a reputation for providing extensive coverage of international events. So if the Turkish-Kurdish conflict were to receive coverage anywhere in the mainstream media, one might expect to find it in the New York Times. A Lexis-Nexis search on New York Times articles using key words "Kurds" or "Kurdish" and "Turkey" or "Turkish" - turned up 77 articles between Sept. 13, 2010 and Sept. 13, 2011. About 2/3 of these articles dealt with the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.
In comparison, a similar search on New York Times articles using key words "Palestinians" and "Israel" or "Israelis" turned up 785 articles. About 2/3 of these articles, approximately 500 in number, prominently featured the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So the Times publishes about 10 times more articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The time period selected is not an aberration, a search on "Israel" or "Israelis" and "Palestinians" covering the past five years of Times coverage turned up 4,317 items compared to 506 for a search on "Kurds" or "Kurdish" and "Turkey" or "Turkish."
The eight to ten times more frequent coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inverse to the relative levels of violence in each respective conflict. Since 1984, when the violent phase of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict began, minimum estimates put the death toll at over 40,000. By contrast, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over that same period has produced less than 10,000 Palestinian and Israeli fatalities.
Two recent events, the abortive 2011 Gaza flotilla that got stranded in Greece, and the recent escalation of violence along the Turkish-Iraqi border, offer an example of the imbalance in coverage relative to the level of violence.
A Lexis-Nexis search of New York Times articles dealing with the grounded flotilla found 51 articles focusing on the topic. Not a single life was lost in the several weeks during June and July 2011 that the drama played out.
The Turkish bombardment of suspected Kurdish bases in Iraq in mid-August, which killed a reported 100-150 people, resulted in just five separate reports, four of which were perfunctory dispatches, like the 103-word item that read as follows:
The Turkish military said Monday that it had killed more than 150 Kurdish separatists this month with artillery fire and airstrikes in northern Iraq that were carried out in retaliation for increased cross-border violence. The rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, often operate out of bases in northern Iraq, where the Iraqi Kurds have achieved a level of autonomy of their own. The rebels -- from the P.K.K., or Kurdistan Workers Party -- have refused to stop fighting unless demands like the release of a jailed leader and public education in the Kurdish language are met by the Turkish government.
It cannot be argued that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets more attention because of its allegedly high civilian toll. A large portion of the dead and maimed in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict are civilians, mostly Kurds.
The New York Times has a reputation for providing extensive coverage of international events. So if the Turkish-Kurdish conflict were to receive coverage anywhere in the mainstream media, one might expect to find it in the New York Times. A Lexis-Nexis search on New York Times articles using key words "Kurds" or "Kurdish" and "Turkey" or "Turkish" - turned up 77 articles between Sept. 13, 2010 and Sept. 13, 2011. About 2/3 of these articles dealt with the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.
In comparison, a similar search on New York Times articles using key words "Palestinians" and "Israel" or "Israelis" turned up 785 articles. About 2/3 of these articles, approximately 500 in number, prominently featured the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So the Times publishes about 10 times more articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The time period selected is not an aberration, a search on "Israel" or "Israelis" and "Palestinians" covering the past five years of Times coverage turned up 4,317 items compared to 506 for a search on "Kurds" or "Kurdish" and "Turkey" or "Turkish."
The eight to ten times more frequent coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inverse to the relative levels of violence in each respective conflict. Since 1984, when the violent phase of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict began, minimum estimates put the death toll at over 40,000. By contrast, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over that same period has produced less than 10,000 Palestinian and Israeli fatalities.
Two recent events, the abortive 2011 Gaza flotilla that got stranded in Greece, and the recent escalation of violence along the Turkish-Iraqi border, offer an example of the imbalance in coverage relative to the level of violence.
A Lexis-Nexis search of New York Times articles dealing with the grounded flotilla found 51 articles focusing on the topic. Not a single life was lost in the several weeks during June and July 2011 that the drama played out.
The Turkish bombardment of suspected Kurdish bases in Iraq in mid-August, which killed a reported 100-150 people, resulted in just five separate reports, four of which were perfunctory dispatches, like the 103-word item that read as follows:
The Turkish military said Monday that it had killed more than 150 Kurdish separatists this month with artillery fire and airstrikes in northern Iraq that were carried out in retaliation for increased cross-border violence. The rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, often operate out of bases in northern Iraq, where the Iraqi Kurds have achieved a level of autonomy of their own. The rebels -- from the P.K.K., or Kurdistan Workers Party -- have refused to stop fighting unless demands like the release of a jailed leader and public education in the Kurdish language are met by the Turkish government.
It cannot be argued that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets more attention because of its allegedly high civilian toll. A large portion of the dead and maimed in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict are civilians, mostly Kurds.