Saturday, February 10, 2007

Today's AP Misleading Headline Award

Headline: 200 Israeli police descend on thousands of Muslim worshipers

What a wonderfully loaded and biased headline. Israeli police "descend" on thousands of Muslim worshipers - conveying an image of these Muslims simply peacefully worshiping.

What were these worshippers doing? The usual -
thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation nearby.

The clash at the end of noon prayers came after days of mounting tensions over the work and raised concern that protests at the site could spread to the West Bank and Gaza, as they did at the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. No serious injuries were reported. About 200 police streamed on to the hilltop compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, to try to quell Muslims rioting over the repair work on a centuries-old ramp, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

So it wasn't the Police descending but rather responding to the riot of these "worshipers" who after prayer apparently continue to worship by

"thr[owing] stones, iron bars and at least one firebomb"


Of course, the headline is both misleading and biased as to what actually occurred. Not that we should expect any better from the AP.

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