Eric Casagrande (8 Aug 2006)
"You Gotta Wonder"


Hi John & All:
 
With the intensely biased reporting by the news media against Israel during this war -- and no it is not just a "crisis" -- in the Middle East, one really must wonder at what point they will order a complete blackout, and reporters will become personna non grata.
 
One of the biggest, and most false, issues from the beginning, has been those numbers quoted from the Lebanese side in the death toll.  I remember that one day while I was watching the proceedings on television, CNN gave about four different numbers. They first reported about 100; then it was 215; followed by 325; before closing for the day at around 157 dead.
 
The Qana report was the most obvious example of the sinfully manipulative nature of the Islamic world ... and CNN swallowed up every bit of it. First it was reported that about 50 were dead, and for dramatic effect, 37 of those were alleged to have been children.  Well that sounded bogus to me from the start, and later on when it became impossible to contain such an outrageous lie, the numbers were change to somewhere about 17 children.
 
But one further problem surfaced, in relation to the Qana incident, when it was made public knowledge that the building in question did not actually collapse until nearly 7 hours after the Israeli strike.  For nearly 48 hours it was falsely reported -- by implication or otherwise -- the building collapse was immediate, and concurrant with the outward blast from the Israeli missle strike in the area.
 
In returning to my original point, I recall when the Lebanese death toll was "set" at around 157, and a Lebanese Government representative interviewed on CNN tossed out an obviously outrageous lie that it was over 600. Nobody in their right mind would ever consider telling such a bold-faced whopper, but since the Islamic world has been lying for decades -- without ever suffering a consequence -- it was a natural moment.  CNN lapped it up, and from then on the death toll had always hovered at or about the 600 number.
 
By the way ... I found the following "death report" of some interest:
 
Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 651 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
 
Someone should point out to Mr. Ghatas, the Associated Press reporter who came out with this story, that 524 + 29 + 53 = 606.
 
But that wasn't anywhere near the whopper put out by the Lebanese Prime Minister, who reported the death toll from the latest Israeli attack at 40 ... only to be forced later on into admitting a slight embellishment, since the confirmed numbers only put the death toll at 1.
 
See ya in the air,
 
Eric