Solomonia Archive: Wrong Picture

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Malik Tintilinic, of the Croatian blog Mali Crveni Patuljci (I'm told it means "Little Red Dwarfs" and is the name of a Croatian rock song), catches this little bit of inappropriate juxtaposition in an ABC News report on today's suicide bombing that killed five people in Hadera, Israel.

Accompanying what is a surprisingly fair AP report on the bombing (fair in that it does a pretty good job of not trying to twist to show how this bombing was really the Israelis' fault and actually portrays Islamic Jihad as worse than Hamas) is the choice of AP photo (shown here) which ABC has run with the report: Blast Kills 5 Israelis, Erodes Peace Hopes

Thing is, that's not a picture of one of the victims' family members, it's the perpetrator's sister:

Rahama Abu Zeid cries next to a picture of her 20-year-old brother Hassan Abu Zeid at the family house in the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh Wednesday Oct. 26, 2005. His name was announced over a bullhorn in Qabatiyeh, residents said, as the suicide bomber that blew himself up earlier at a falafel stand in an open-air market in the Israeli city of Hadera killing himself and five Israelis...

Which strikes me as a bit like printing the story of an ax murderer who kills five people and wounds many more and running as the only graphic a picture of the ax-murderer's grieving family -- probably not the best way to illustrate the human cost. At best the taste is questionable.

Update: Dave notes that the problem with the photographic coverage of the story is quite wide-spread.

Posted by Solomon at 10:19 PM on Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005 | Comments (6)
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6 Comments

#1 Dave | October 27, 2005 9:50 AM

I think you'll find that Malik referenced my blog. The issue is not with ABC News. It is much wider than that. See here:

http://www.israellycool.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/27/1324852.html

#2 Solomon | October 27, 2005 10:07 AM

Ah, it did come from you. Sorry, didn't notice the hat tip. Good catch. The other ABC story did have a different photo, but it was just a sort of non-descript picture of someone being loaded on an ambulance. No passion like the others.

#3 Cynic | October 27, 2005 11:01 AM

Pity they did not not show the grieving family of one of the victims
Jamil Muhammed Qa'adan, 48, from Baka al-Garbiyeh, who was the Education Ministry inspector for Haifa.
Thousands turn out for funerals of Hadera bomb victims
For the international media Israelis are nonentities.

#4 Mike Nargizian | October 27, 2005 6:35 PM

It's possible that if they knew or realized that one of the victims was an Israeli Arab they might have.
Isn't it amazing all the details we know about the Murderer and his family but the dead are just "5 Israelis".
Also notable that the person you mentioned had a good job and life in Israel.

#5 Malik Tintilinic | October 29, 2005 3:28 PM

To Israellycool:

I saw the photo on Google News (ABC News), while searching for news about the pigua, and wrote an blog enrty about that. I've seen your entry a day later and added an update as I saw you caught this in a broader context.

If you wrote about it first, I will certainly mention that, as I wasn't aware of the fact when posting your link as an update.

#6 Dave | October 30, 2005 1:27 AM

Hi Malik,

Not to worry! My intention was not to undermine your blog post, but merely point people to mine, where I discuss the issue in depth. I am glad there are people like you who also notice these things.

Keep up the great work.