Monday, July 23, 2007

HEADLINE BIAS AT THE LA TIMES

Headline Bias at the LA Times (CAMERA)
Three briefs. Three headlines. Two standards. Thanks to the Los Angeles Times today for providing a case study in headline bias:

Israel kills 4 Palestinian militants

4 [Lebanese] soldiers slain battling militants

Gunfights leave 19 [Pakistani] insurgents dead

The LA Times' tendency to single out Israeli actions with the active voice was documented years ago. (See here, here, and here.) In addition to the fact that the active voice is reserved exclusively for Israel, the verbs themselves are also striking. Israel "kills," a very strong word in comparison to the softer "slain" and "dead." Another interesting point in today's sampling is that other than the Israeli-Palestinian example, the headlines don't even indicate where in the world the other killings occurred.

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