CNN

For a moderate American perspective on Israel, CNN, one of the largest and most-watched outlets in the United States, does the best job. CNN is often lauded as the most unbiased source of mainstream news in the United States, and one would suggest CNN leans more towards Israel because most US news sources are considered pro-Israel. However, when it comes to Israeli conflict, they may not be as pro-Israel as the public thinks. Through an analysis of headlines and content in CNN’s articles, CNN does not appear to be clearly pro-Israel, and in fact even leans towards sympathizing with the Palestinians in some articles.

When looking at the headlines of recent CNN articles about Israel and Palestine, Israel gets mentioned in more headlines than Palestine, although most headlines paint Israel in a negative light. Headlines include “Israel Demolishes Homes as Killers’ Families Pay Price for Terror Attacks” (Shubert), “Israel Revives Controversial Policy” (Israel), and “Israeli Guard Charged with Manslaughter” (Israeli Guard). These headlines do not even mention the Palestinian share of the fault in these stories and focus only on the negative side of Israel’s policies. When headlines do happen to cover violent attacks committed against Israel, they do not include the words Palestinian, terrorists, or anything derogatory against the Palestinians compared to the headlines including the name Israel. These headlines, instead of saying Palestinian citizens or government, say things like “In Jerusalem Synagogue Where Killers Struck, a Determination to Keep Praying” (Shubert and Mullen), “In Synagogue Attack, Five Lives Dedicated to Faith and Service are Lost” (Fantz), and “Israeli Wounded in Another Stabbing” (Levs). No responsibility is placed on the Palestinian terrorists in any of these situations, but when Israel is mentioned in headlines, it is given full responsibility for its actions.

Though headlines may show a bias against Israel or take away blame from the Palestinians, the content of the full articles does tend to be fairer to both sides. Take for example the article, “Israeli Wounded in Another Stabbing” (Levs). Even though the headline claims no Palestinian responsibility, the article itself states in the first paragraph that the Israeli was wounded by an Arab youth as part of the series of attacks on Jerusalem by Palestinians. The article then explains that Palestinians cause the violence because of their anger towards Israel for occupying East Jerusalem (Levs). It represents both sides’ issues and why they have led to the outcome of an Israeli being stabbed. In the same way, other articles whose headlines are biased against Israel go on to explain why Israel carries out the policies it does and the Palestinians role in causing Israel to create those policies.

The evidence shows that CNN is sometimes biased against Israel, but is not always pro-Palestine. Its headlines are clearly biased against Israel, but the content of its news stories is fairly unbiased, neither singling out the Palestinians or Israelis as the only problem. Therefore it can be concluded that CNN is typically unbiased, but does tend to sympathize with Palestine if necessary to choose a side.