Media

Palestinians inspect car after IAF strike in Gaza City

This is the way these stories always seem to play out. Now I have no idea if all this is true, but appears to be based on Islamic Jihad's confirming it all.

But that's not the story I'm after. Hell, that story's everywhere.

No, this is a story of bad reporting. Please notice the emphasized words (mine).

The dead are always depicted as "baddies" at first with, perhaps, a passing reference to civilians. Later the civilians are mentioned...or not. In this case they're mentioned, four of them wounded, but its in the next to the last paragraph. Hardly worth bringing up, actually, and no indication of the severity of those injuries.

Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organization from the skies over Gaza, killing eight of the organization's men in three fiery strikes overnight.

In an e-mail sent to reporters, Islamic Jihad said it would retaliate for its losses with suicide attacks inside Israel, threatening "a wave of martyrdom operations."

Early Tuesday, an Israeli air-to-ground missile killed three Islamic Jihad gunmen, including a senior commander, as they emerged from morning prayers at a northern Gaza mosque.

That attack came on the heels of a pair of airstrikes after nightfall Monday. Israeli aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City, killing five Islamic Jihad militants, including the group's overall commander in Gaza and the West Bank and a master rocket maker.

Gaza militants fire near-daily rocket barrages at Israeli towns. The projectiles have killed 12 people, and cause widespread hardship in communities in Israel's south. Islamic Jihad, a small radical group with ties to Iran, has taken responsibility for most of the barrages.

In this case no mention of injured, just 12 dead. And further there's no time-frame. All killed in one day, three weeks, seven months? Come on, give us some perspective here.

Finally, no identification if the dead were civilians. I'm assuming because they used the word "people" they were all civilians although of indeterminate age as were the Palestinian injured. Had all or some of the 12 been IDF, I'm pretty sure that would have been spelled out, but ya never know.

Nit picking alert: The projectiles have killed 12 people, and cause widespread hardship... [emphasis mine] Are these changes in verb tense in one sentence allowed in style books? Just asking because I try my damnedest to avoid this. Often without success.

SPIIDERWEB™ Rulz!

Via MSNBC.