TRUE OR FALSE. Is the media treatment of the war between Hamas and Israel balanced?

“It is an event that is very polarizing, which is difficult to deal with, and which leads certain Internet users to consider that certain media are either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. For example, an anonymous Internet user believes ‘that the inhabitants of Gaza are killed every day and the media do not talk about them.’ Politicians criticize in the other direction, like the secretary general of the Renaissance group in the Assembly who attacks a front page of Ouest-France, devoted to the bombings in Gaza. (…) She makes a direct link between media treatment and anti-Semitic acts“, reports Nicolas Carvalho, journalist from the “True or False” unit.

Another example of a message, that of the socialist Julien Dray, “who does not at all appreciate the front page of ‘Libération’ on the Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip“, adds the journalist.

No invisibility

Can we say that the newspaper “Libération” talks too much about Gaza and not enough about Israeli victims? “The problem is that it is not at all easy to define what is pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. For example, the front page of ‘Libération’ today is devoted to Benyamin Netanyahu and the criticism he receives. It is necessarily complicated to estimate the position of a media based on its choices of headlines.“, specifies Nicolas Carvalho.

Beyond the front pages, there is the content of the different newspapers and articles. “Yes, since we cannot reduce the work of an editorial team to its front page. For example, in the issue devoted to the hell of Gaza, there is an article on the families of Israeli victims in Tel Aviv, another on the rise of anti-Semitic acts in France. And to complete the process, we also counted the articles devoted to the victims and the emotion on both sides, Palestinian or Israeli. Again, it’s quite balanced. There is no invisibility, as some want us to believe“, continues Nicolas Carvalho.