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Saturday, May 04, 2024

Calling out FOX headlining. Their story belies their headlining. It offends.

Please expand this top-of-story capture - from this May 3 FOX item - to see the headline and a couple of images of cops in line, no violence. And some text.

The headline: 

Over 2,000 anti-Israel agitators have been arrested during antisemitic protests on US college campuses

First, protesters are not "agitators" unless you've a bent sense of the English language. But beyond that -- The captured images and included lead text say nothing about "antisemitism." Indeed, a word search of the stem "antisemi" found a single usage. Yes. In the headline. Nowhere else was anything said about attitudes toward Jewish people, as the word "antisemitism" is most commonly used. Zippo.

Buried as the last paragraph of the item:

The demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas terrorists carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history when they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7 and took roughly 250 hostages back into Gaza.

Truth is, a 34 to 1 kill ratio, and Israel still going.

If you've spent any time in a tent, it is no luxury, even while enjoying a wilderness experience. To set up a tent on urban concrete you either have to be homeless with no other choice, or willing to sacrifice comfort to make a political statement.

Would you spend a few days in a tent on an urban college campus - on concrete; even if you felt quite strongly about something? So, these people are not coddling themselves, not in any way.

And what is their beef? The government of Israel is acting against civilians of Gaza in a most questionable manner. These people protest that. They sacrifice comfort to make a statement. And the images show no extreme violence. While reading things differently, Gary Gross posts a video showing police are not forced to don riot gear and use flashbang grenades - or not so at NYU. If some did elsewhere, they chose to, and were not forced by anything beyond their preferences and command structure. These were peaceful but intentional protests.

You never see any media outlet whatsoever contending "people hate Russians" as a consequence to be drawn from the Russian GOVERNMENT'S war against Ukraine, and those claiming Russia is acting unjustly. Criticism of conduct of a nation - Putin's government - is not at all a threat of any kind against Russian people living in our nation. Yet, criticize Bibi's minions of ultra-Zionists, what they in fact are doing, and it somehow gets mysteriously coflagrated as "antisemitism." The more you find fault with settlements and starving, maiming and killing Gazan civilians, the more virulent your "antisemitism" is claimed to be. It is playing upon people's ignorance to deceive them that way, some being more susceptible, more ignorant, than others. 

For sane, balanced coverage of campus unrest these days, focus upon Columbia, Guardian is objective and both broad and subtle in scope of analysis, here and here.

Read that, avoid the bullshit. Last, for the second Guardian item, this web search to identify it not being an overt advocacy group writing the item.

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Two cogent recent items by Timmer at left.mn --- Apr. 26, and Apr. 29. Timmer writes well.