8-Aug-13: This video clip might just upturn the way people think about the conflict

The Al Durah scene: Testament to the
power of lethal journalism and
dishonest video recording

We hope the imagery below has gone viral by the time you see it here.

The caption on the LiveLeaks site where we first saw it says very little about who is behind it or their goals. But that's less significant than might appear to be the case at first. Though they participants are speaking Arabic, you don't really need to get into the meaning of their words to fully comprehend the message on show here.

What the people in front of the cameras and behind them have discovered, and which far too few in Western countries understand, is that if you take yourself seriously enough while inventing an entire narrative and looking injured and/or offended, practically no one is going to object or reveal the truth. In other words, Pallywood ("a bustling industry of alfresco cinema", according to the man who coined the term).

It has been a standard part of news coverage here in the Arab vs Israel conflict for at least a decade. It's in evidence every single day. Faked photos (sometimes call fauxtography), faked clashes, faked injuries, faked deaths, faked dramatic poses, faked arguments and faked responses.

Take a look at the whole two minute clip:

Now, while it's still freshly planted in your mind, would be a good time to take a look at the aldurah.com website, and the ground-breaking, 18-minute video "Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources" (2008), the work of Prof. Richard Landes.

15-Feb-11: Iran - how the local and foreign and social media see things... differently

More clashes, more protests, and now death in the streets. But don't expect the Mullahs of Iran to acknowledge that any of this is happening. Like yesterday, we have three snapshots below, all of them focused on Tehran, all of them captured at about the same moment today. The entirely different senses of what's happening are another reminder of how editors and reporters can, at will, fashion a reality that is completely disconnected from actual events while serving an ideological agenda.

First the New York Times.

Now our friends from the Iranian-state-owned PressTV who know Breaking News when they see it:

Iran's gift to the world of round-the-clock news coverage is breathless when it comes to news breaking in Bahrain and Cairo and Tunisia. But they're struck completely dumb when the subject is the tumult on the streets of their own capital, with masses getting up and standing for their long-stolen rights.

And finally a Twitter picture, one of many that are finding their way out of Iran and into the social networks today.

Iran is "the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Persian Gulf and undermined the growth of democracy." [Source - August 2010].