{"id":257112,"date":"2016-07-21T02:24:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T02:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/us-led-airstrikes-kill-as-many-civilians-as-nice-attack-but-get-no-front-page-headlines-in-major-us-papers\/"},"modified":"2016-07-21T02:24:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T02:24:17","slug":"us-led-airstrikes-kill-as-many-civilians-as-nice-attack-but-get-no-front-page-headlines-in-major-us-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/us-led-airstrikes-kill-as-many-civilians-as-nice-attack-but-get-no-front-page-headlines-in-major-us-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Led Airstrikes Kill as Many Civilians as Nice Attack\u2013but Get No Front-Page Headlines in Major US Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Victim<\/a><\/p>\n

The Intercept<\/strong> (7\/19\/16<\/a>) illustrated its article on a deadly airstrike in Syria with a photo of a victim receiving medical attention. (Photo: Delil Souleiman\/AFP<\/strong>\/Getty Images<\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A coalition airstrike reported on Tuesday that killed at least 85 civilians\u2014one more than died in the Nice attack in France last week\u2014wasn\u2019t featured at all on the front pages of two of the top US national newspapers, the New York Times<\/b><\/a> and LA Times<\/b><\/a>, and only merited brief blurbs on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal<\/b><\/a> and Washington Post<\/b><\/a>, with the actual stories buried on pages A-16 and A-15, respectively.<\/p>\n

According to the London Telegraph <\/b>(7\/19\/16<\/a>), the airstrike killed \u201cmore than 85 civilians\u201d after the \u201ccoalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.\u201d Eight families were represented among the dead, with victims \u201cas young as three.\u201d The Intercept<\/b> (7\/19\/16<\/a>) reported the death toll could end up being well over 100.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has not denied the reports, saying an investigation is underway, according to Stars and Stripes <\/b>(7\/19\/16<\/a>), a media outlet that operates inside the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

As many on Twitter<\/b> pointed out, the number of dead was roughly equal to that of the recent Nice attack, yet the airstrike did not garner nearly as much media coverage, nor did news outlets convey an outpouring of grief:<\/p>\n

\n

US “accidentally” obliterated 85 civilians. Same number as killed in Nice but you won’t see wall-to-wall coverage https:\/\/t.co\/eS8wEa14pQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 20, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

By contrast, the Nice attack garnered multiple front-page stories in the New York Times<\/b><\/a> and LA Times<\/b><\/a>, as well as significantly more than 20-word blurbs in the Wall Street Journal<\/b><\/a> and Washington Post<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

For those who see a \u201cfalse equivalency,\u201d there are two mitigating reasons for this glaring discrepancy: 1) The airstrike deaths were an \u201caccident\u201d and 2) Syria\u2019s a war zone, where civilian deaths are to be expected. Neither of these retorts are satisfactory, and certainly not enough to justify a virtual front-page blackout.<\/p>\n

On the issue of accidental deaths having less import than purposeful ones, this doesn\u2019t explain why unintentional natural disaster deaths routinely receive splashing front-page coverage<\/a>. Intent rarely affects coverage of these events; only death counts do. And this is granting the deaths were actually accidental, which we don\u2019t know for sure at this time, or whether the US military was using tactics, like so-called \u201csignature strikes<\/a>,\u201d that are known to greatly increase the chances of killing noncombatants.<\/p>\n

As for the \u201cwar zone\u201d factor, according to Airwars<\/a>, a Western group that monitors civilian deaths at the hands of the US-led coalition, the total number of civilians deaths since the beginning of airstrikes in September 2014 has been 190. To increase this number by almost 50 percent in a matter of days would indeed be a radical departure from the normal course of events\u2014rendering it more than newsworthy.<\/p>\n

Indeed, all of the publications in question ran a story on the \u201cdozens of deaths\u201d at the hands of US-led airstrikes, so we know they deemed it notable. Just not notable enough, for whatever reason, to put in a prominent position for US audiences.<\/p>\n

\n

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org<\/strong>. <\/em>Follow him on Twitter<\/strong> at\u00a0@AdamJohnsonNYC<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Intercept (7\/19\/16) illustrated its article on a deadly airstrike in Syria with a photo of a victim receiving medical attention. (Photo: Delil Souleiman\/AFP\/Getty Images) A coalition airstrike reported on Tuesday that killed at least 85 civilians\u2014one more than died in the Nice attack in France last week\u2014wasn\u2019t featured at all on the front pages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-257112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}