You may be wondering where is Blex going with this one, quite simple, I just want to show you to which extent media bias can go. One thing I never told you is that my sister is a journalist so she knows a couple of things about that trade.
First of all, if you follow Yahoo News you will notice how pictures about the Basques are usually related to political events or to the last act of violence by ETA or the Guardia Civil, very seldom you will see a picture showing a Basque cultural event. Now, among those pictures they actually show you will never see children, it is always adults, the picture I posted is the forth one to depict children in over two years. There was one of a girl walking by a Batasuna graffiti in Donostia I think, one of a bunch of kids playing with an Ikurrina in Andoain and one of a girl in a protest against that one crazy french politician in Baiona, that is it.
Why?
Quite easy, the media forgot they are supposed to inform, not to create opinion. The reason why you don't see children is because the image of children in the middle of a conflict or issue tends to create an emotional link between the viewer and the underdog. The media wants to make sure that the public's perception of the Basque issue is that of a bunch of lunatics that could be living in paradise if they could come to terms with the fact that "they lost that war". To throw photos of children in the mix goes against that tailored concept, so they avoid them because children represent innocence, and they want nothing innocent about the Basque issue.
Second, when the media wants to support a cause they throw in the ethnic issue because the world still remembers what can happen when someone decides an ethnic group is not worth it. If you put the words Albanian or Kurdish/Kurd on the Yahoo News search engine you will come up with a bunch of pictures of Kosovo and Iraq and the foot note will read something like "Ethnic Albanian" or "Ethnic Kurd". Once again, they do that so you feel sympathy for the poor ethnic this or that who are victims of intolerance and racism and could face "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of this or that horrible dictator. Other people get at least their nationality without the "ethnic" part. Never the Basques, unless it is a terrorist or a "radical" politician like Otegi.
That is the media bias that we need to fight.
The first picture should read "Ethnic Basque/Spaniard Basque children..." or the second one should read "Students..." in order for it to be objective information which is the kind that you expect from an international information source, and from then on, you can form your own opinion.
.... ... .
First of all, if you follow Yahoo News you will notice how pictures about the Basques are usually related to political events or to the last act of violence by ETA or the Guardia Civil, very seldom you will see a picture showing a Basque cultural event. Now, among those pictures they actually show you will never see children, it is always adults, the picture I posted is the forth one to depict children in over two years. There was one of a girl walking by a Batasuna graffiti in Donostia I think, one of a bunch of kids playing with an Ikurrina in Andoain and one of a girl in a protest against that one crazy french politician in Baiona, that is it.
Why?
Quite easy, the media forgot they are supposed to inform, not to create opinion. The reason why you don't see children is because the image of children in the middle of a conflict or issue tends to create an emotional link between the viewer and the underdog. The media wants to make sure that the public's perception of the Basque issue is that of a bunch of lunatics that could be living in paradise if they could come to terms with the fact that "they lost that war". To throw photos of children in the mix goes against that tailored concept, so they avoid them because children represent innocence, and they want nothing innocent about the Basque issue.
Second, when the media wants to support a cause they throw in the ethnic issue because the world still remembers what can happen when someone decides an ethnic group is not worth it. If you put the words Albanian or Kurdish/Kurd on the Yahoo News search engine you will come up with a bunch of pictures of Kosovo and Iraq and the foot note will read something like "Ethnic Albanian" or "Ethnic Kurd". Once again, they do that so you feel sympathy for the poor ethnic this or that who are victims of intolerance and racism and could face "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of this or that horrible dictator. Other people get at least their nationality without the "ethnic" part. Never the Basques, unless it is a terrorist or a "radical" politician like Otegi.
That is the media bias that we need to fight.
The first picture should read "Ethnic Basque/Spaniard Basque children..." or the second one should read "Students..." in order for it to be objective information which is the kind that you expect from an international information source, and from then on, you can form your own opinion.
.... ... .
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