CNN has been covering the escalating Israeli-Lebanese conflict almost 24/7 since it began. Unfortunately, most of the news reports seem decidedly biased towards either the Israeli or Lebanese side of the conflict, with relatively little neutral reporting.
Last night I watched one of their human interest stories, this time about the doctors in an Israeli hospital, the courageous work they’re doing working to save everyone’s lives while their own are in danger. And it was touching and inspiring. Several times during the story, they spoke of all the horrendous injuries sustained in the rocket bombardment, but reported that today they were lucky, there were no casualties. And the viewer sighed in relief and smiled that Israel was alright.
A day or two before, I saw a story about Lebanese families, fleeing from their homes to escape the bombings. They spoke of the kindness of Hezbollah, providing social services both during peacetime and now in the middle of the conflict. An innocent Lebanese girl, 12 or 13 years old and speaking perfect English, was interviewed. She looked like any other schoolgirl you’d find in the United States, and tells us that she doesn’t understand why she’s being attacked, how sad she is to leave her home, and that she’s not a terrorist. The reporter spoke on the mounting civilian death toll in Lebanon, far exceeding that of the Israelis. And this time, the viewer rose up in anger against the Israelis for inflicting such suffering on the innocent Lebanese.
And so the viewer swings back and forth, rooting for one side one moment, the other the next. It doesn’t work like that…we can’t say which side is right, which is wrong. We should just care that people are dying, no matter what side they’re on.
And then another thought comes to mind as the TV drones in the background. Every once in a while the coverage switches back to Iraq, or to Saddam Hussein’s hunger strike and hospitalization. And then we turn for a while to North Korea. Then we turn back to Israel. But all of the news coverage centers around this small part of the world. I understand why it’s at the forefront of everyone’s minds. And part of that is that the instability in the Middle East will affect our comfortable secure lives in the Western world.
The world didn’t know or care about the Rwandan genocide; we were too busy watching the OJ Simpson proceedings. And more recently, there’s been almost no media coverage of the Darfur crisis in Sudan, which began in 2004…estimates on the death toll range from 50,000 to over 400,000.
To give a comparison, estimates on the current Lebanese death toll vary, but are between 400 and 600, with most of them civilians. In Israel, less than 40 soldiers have been killed, and no civilians.
But fighting in Israel or Iraq will affect our gas prices, and we might get nuked if North Korea has a bad day. Since we’ll never notice the effects of people dying in Africa, does that mean we don’t care?
