{"id":372756,"date":"2018-08-09T22:30:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/laundering-a-massacre-by-labeling-it-a-clash\/"},"modified":"2018-08-09T22:30:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:30:15","slug":"laundering-a-massacre-by-labeling-it-a-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/laundering-a-massacre-by-labeling-it-a-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Laundering a Massacre By Labeling It a \u2018Clash\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As FAIR has noted before (e.g., <b>Extra!<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/hiding-dapl-violence-behind-nothing-to-see-here-headlines\/\">1\/17<\/a>; <b>FAIR.org<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/npr-runs-idf-playbook-spinning-killing-of-17-palestinians\/\">4\/2\/18<\/a>), the term \u201cclash\u201d is almost always used to launder power asymmetry and give the reader the impression of two equal warring sides. It obscures power dynamics and the nature of the conflict itself, e.g., who instigated it and what weapons if any were used. \u201cClash\u201d is a reporter\u2019s best friend when they want to describe violence without offending anyone in power\u2014in the words of George Orwell, \u201cto name things without calling up mental pictures of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s predictable, then, that in coverage of Israel\u2019s recent mass shootings in Gaza\u2014which have killed over 30 Palestinians and injured more than 1,100\u2014the word \u201cclashes\u201d is used to euphemize snipers in fortified positions firing on unarmed protesters 100 meters away:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Journalist Among 9 Dead in Latest Gaza Clashes, Palestinian Health Officials Say (<b>CNN<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/04\/07\/middleeast\/gaza-israel-border-protest-deaths-intl\/index.html\">4\/7\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Burning Tires, Tear Gas and Live Fire: Gaza Clashes Turn Deadly (<b>Washington Post<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/death-toll-in-gaza-protests-climbs-to-22-as-both-sides-brace-forfriday-of-tires\/2018\/04\/06\/daff7b60-3908-11e8-af3c-2123715f78df_story.html?utm_term=.9a38932a4576\">4\/6\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrators Wounded as Gaza Clashes Resume (<b>Reuters<\/b>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/saturday-star\/world\/demonstrators-wounded-as-gaza-clashes-resume-14297698\"> 4\/7\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>After Gaza Clash, Israel and Palestinians Fight With Videos and Words (<b>New York Times,<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/01\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-fighting.html\">4\/1\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When one side is dying by the dozens and the other is sitting behind a heavily secured wall, firing at will on unarmed people from hundreds of feet away (some of whom are wearing vests marked \u201cPRESS\u201d), this is not a \u201cclash.\u201d It\u2019s more accurately described as a \u201cmassacre,\u201d or at the very least, \u201cfiring on protesters.\u201d (No Israelis have been injured, which would be a surprising thing if two sides were actually \u201cclashing.\u201d)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8925815\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8925815 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NYT-Syrian-Protesters-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>New York Times<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/26\/world\/middleeast\/26syria.html\">3\/25\/11<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The fig leaf of \u201cclashes\u201d is not needed in reporting on US enemies. In 2011, Western headlines routinely described Libya\u2019s Moammar Gaddafi and Syria\u2019s Bashar al-Assad as having \u201cfired on protesters\u201d (<b>Guardian<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/feb\/20\/libya-protests-benghazi-muammar-gaddafi\">2\/20\/11<\/a>; <b>New York Times<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/26\/world\/middleeast\/26syria.html\">3\/25\/11<\/a>). Simple plain English works when reporting on those in bad standing with the US national security establishment, but for allies of the United States, the push for false parity requires increasingly absurd euphemisms to mask what\u2019s really going on\u2014in this case, the long-distance slaughter of unarmed human beings.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has a state-of-the-art military: F35s, Sa\u2019ar corvettes, Merkava tanks and Hellfire missiles, not to mention the most intrusive surveillance apparatus in the world; total control over the air, sea and land. In the Great March of Return protests, the Palestinians have employed rocks, tires and, according to the IDF, the occasional Molotov cocktail, though no independent evidence has emerged of the latter being used. The power asymmetry is one of the largest of any conflict in the world, yet Western media still cling on an institutional level to a \u201ccycle of violence\u201d frame, with \u201cboth sides\u201d depicted as equal parties. The term \u201cclashes\u201d permits them to do this in perpetuity, no matter how one-sided the violence becomes.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/laundering-a-massacre-by-labeling-it-a-clash\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As FAIR has noted before (e.g., Extra!, 1\/17; FAIR.org, 4\/2\/18), the term \u201cclash\u201d is almost always used to launder power asymmetry and give the reader the impression of two equal warring sides. It obscures power dynamics and the nature of the conflict itself, e.g., who instigated it and what weapons if any were used. \u201cClash\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-372756","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\/372756","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\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}