Middle East Conflict: Complex Issues, Powerful Images Create Media Challenges

NYT’s Lorne Manly on Middle East conflict coverage: World News EP Jon Banner “said he could not think of a news event in recent memory more difficult to cover, given the complexity of the issues and powerful nature of the images. Usually ABC has run one segment from Lebanon and one from Israel as a way to tell both sides of the fighting.”

Also: “Editors and executives at newspapers, newsmagazines and the broadcast and cable networks say they do not impose a formula for fairness on coverage of this conflagration. ‘This is not a sporting event, where we’re toting up the scores of both sides,’ said Jonathan Klein, president of CNN…”