Good news from Israel vs. bad news from…the Netherlands?
Posted on October 18, 2007 • By Miriam Schwab
Category: Social |
israelplug was born as an effort to produce a news site with the type of news about Israel you won’t find on mainstream publications - good news! Sometimes I watch the news and I think “Are they talking about me and everyone I know?” It makes me wonder if I actually am oppressing poor minority children in my free time…
Anyways, there are those who claim that the media repeatedly adopts a negative slant when reporting on Israel, thus promoting a bias rather than reality, and that we’re not necessarily worse than other countries. For example, The Netherlands is a particularly sinister place.
The Netherlands?! The Netherlands is a place full of windmills, tulips and free pot! A bad day there must be when someone smoking pot fears that the windmills are blowing the tulips over.
Well, The Netherlands ain’t as rosy as it seems, and Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has set out to prove it with his new blog “Bad News From the Netherlands.” In this blog, he exclusively reports on the negative things happening in The Netherlands, to emulate the negative slant that the media applies to Israel. For example, he tells us that this beacon of democracy has adopted preventive arrests! This means that if they think someone plans to disturb the public order, they can arrest them. The site has other stories about suspicously-dead key witnesses in trials, and how 60% of Dutch mayors are threatened annually.
Dr. Gerstenfeld encourages others to start similar blogs about other countries, and someone has already taken the torch and is writing about the cause of all the world’s problems…Finland! (Oooh, just the name sends shivers down my spine.)
How about Bad News from Canada?
As a former Canadian, I decided to browse today’s Canadian papers to find some dirty, juicy news that could potentially work for a “Bad News about Canada” blog. I knew this was a useless attempt as soon as I saw the first screaming headline on The Toronto Star:
Oh my lord! Anything but a panel! And they’re probing books! Do the gatekeepers of Toronto never sleep?
And then, the top headline under the crime section (parents, please shield your children’s innocent eyes):
What has this world come to? Totem-pole-stealing good-for-nothings…why don’t they pick on totem-poles-student-ownsers their own size?
Dr. Gerstenfeld - your plan is interesting, but there are certain countries that actually have to struggle to come up with negative stories for their media. Their news can never compare to ours - for better or for worse.
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hysterical!
@”How about Bad News from Canada?” As a former Israeli, I can assure you, that every new day in Vancouver makes Israel look better.
Muhammad - funny you should say that about Vancouver. I know someone who moved there from Israel and thinks it’s great. By the way, there’s a new community site for Vancouver Jews in case you’re interested: http://yidsunite.com.