This photograph of Israeli children writing on artillery shells bound for targets in Lebanon has caused outrage

The Toronto Star (p E5) Jul. 25, 2006
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS

"They were gruesome lunchtime images, and totally unexpected.

Yesterday, on CNN's Your World Today, correspondent Becky Anderson in Beirut introduced a report by Karl Penhaul who told of a Tyre family devastated by an Israeli air strike. "Let me tell you, some of these pictures are disturbing," Anderson warned. "Please be aware."

Then came the sights and sounds of screaming children, their faces and bodies barbecued by what the doctor maintains are chemical weapons which, stunningly, are legal. Finally, some reality in reality programming.

Oh sure, CNN attempted to balance out this story by preceding it with a lengthy report by the fatuous Miles O'Brien. He led us up and down the streets of Haifa playing war correspondent in a melodrama mostly of his own making, unwittingly mocking the suffering of the people there.

"Those Katyusha rockets just keep raining down," he said. "We're told upwards of 100 came down today. Once again, as we say, Haifa spared the worst of it today, unlike yesterday, with all those rockets that came in and a couple of deaths. In this case, no damage or injury to report. And a lot of people here, I'm sure, breathing a sigh of relief. Having said all that, there aren't as many people here as there should be."

All of which is why, no matter how many bombs it rains down on Lebanon, no matter how many villages taken, no matter how battles won, Israel will lose the war of world opinion.

That despite how Hezbollah launches its rockets from downtown Lebanon, ostensibly using civilians as shields. The point is, Israel still fires back, killing those civilians. And it does it with superior might and firepower, with the backing of the world's greatest superpower and, sadly, Canada.

It doesn't play well on TV, no matter how much the news nets try to balance it.

What's different this war, unlike that in Iraq or Afghanistan, is that the journalists in both countries are free to roam and report, unencumbered by embedding and unconfined to army briefings miles from the theatre of operations."

Read the full story here http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0725-31.htm