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Protesting the Washington Post's double standards
[Also read AAI's report on the Washington Post ]
May 20, 2002 -- On March 29, 2002, Suraida Saleh, a 21-year-old native of Washington, D.C. was driving towards an Israeli military checkpoint in Ramallah, along with her husband and nine-month-old son, when Israeli soldiers opened fire on their vehicle. Suraida took 30 bullets to her body, which, according to her husband, she had used to protect him and their child. An ambulance was stalled on the other side of the same checkpoint for over an hour before Suraida's husband and baby could be rescued and Suraida's body could be recovered from the bullet-riddled car.
It took the Washington Post MORE THAN A WEEK to print a story on this native of the DC area, after much prodding and pleading from PMWATCH and other activists in the area. And when it did print it, on April 6, 2002, the story was not on the front page, nor even in the A section. It was relegated to the B section. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4034-2002Apr5.html
Compare and contrast the Washington Post's rendering of Suraida's tragic killing with that of the equally tragic killing of two Israeli teenagers, one of whom was a native of the DC area, back on May 9, 2001. The killing was headlined on A1 with TWO stories, and TWO front page color photographs: one of a funeral and another of the victims. Inside, on pages A24-25, FIVE MORE photographs of grieving Israelis were printed.
Suraida's story -- the riddling of a mother with 30 bullets while holding her baby -- had to wait a whole week (after much prodding and pleading), and when the story came out, it made the B section. The killing of the Israeli boys resulted in TWO A1 banner stories, and SEVEN photos.