The ‘Disproportionate’ Lie

Masterly coverage of the Media Lies over on Mediacrity

Today’s No. 1 Israel-smear word is “disproportionate.” Just run the words in Google News and you’ll see what I mean — 3,500 hits! It’s a fave of such epitomes of moral authority as the European Union and French UN ambassador and the peace-loving, always restrained Russians and — well, you get the idea. Morality fans!

I’m still waiting for someone in the media to call these hypocrites for what they are, and point out the last time any military action Israel took was ever described as reasonable or “proportionate.” How about “never”?

That is why the Israelis are wise to ignore such blather and strike out hard.Meanwhile, in the “business as usual” front, the New York Times today was displaying its usual indifference to Israeli suffering and pro-Arab slant. With its house terrorism apologist, Hassan “Wrong Man” Fattah, on the job, The Times slathered on the sympathy for the poor, poor employees of the Beirut airport, none of whom actually got so much as a scrape.

Contrast this with the grudging coverage of Hezbollah murder-rockets landing on northern Israel.

But the Times really outdid itself in its usual area of excellence, which is sophistry and simple-minded analysis.

In a lead editorial, the Times opined that Israel risked “playing Hamas’s game” by — get ready for this, friends — blowing Hamas and Hezbollah to smithereens. You gotta love it. Of course, they could send those two groups rose pedals, thereby hurting them politically.

Even that tripe was outdone by a “news analysis” in which Helene Cooper suggested that Syria, now justifiably shunned by the U.S., may have a way of getting the U.S. back on speaking terms again. The path is for Syria to behave even worse than it does now.

“Some Middle East watchers say that if things continue to spiral downward, American diplomats may have no choice but to reach out to Syria at least, even if it is through a back channel,” said Cooper. Thank heavens such geniuses are not running our government.

You know the Times is really pushing at its dreadful limits when it makes CNN look good. Last night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and other CNN correspondents provided surprisingly balanced, even compassionate coverage of the plight of Israeli civilians in the north of Israel. Cooper even spent some time with an Israeli artillery battery.

The loathsome Christiane Amanpour was nowhere in sight, but a CNN press release says she threatens to return to Israel on Sunday. Get your barf bag ready.