Bomb in Jerusalem - coverage in the New York area Press

Citation

Levinson, J. (2003), "Bomb in Jerusalem - coverage in the New York area Press", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 12 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2003.07312eab.002

Bomb in Jerusalem - coverage in the New York area Press

Bomb in Jerusalem - coverage in the New York area Press

On 11 June 2003 a suicide bomber detonated an explosive bus at 17.26 on a No. 14 bus on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road. The bomber, dressed as an ultra-orthodox Jew to avoid suspicion, apparently boarded the bus at Machne Yehudah Market; the explosive went off at the Davidka Square.

USA Today, a national newspaper with an edition printed in New York, ran a lead headline in its edition of the next morning, “25 killed as Mideast erupts.” This was the sum total of fatalities in the previous day’s violence. In articles, both on page 1 and on 9A, the newspaper covered the bus bombing and incidents in Gaza as part of the same articles. More vivid coverage was given to the bus bombing, including heart-rendering descriptions of the wounded, perhaps because of greater “news availability.” Israeli Minister Nathan Sharansky was quoted as stating that since his daughter routinely travels on that bus line, he was verifying that she was safe, a difficult task when phone lines were down. The newspaper gave several examples of a known phenomenon in disaster response – people in the area ran to help before regular responders arrived on scene.

The Daily News, New York’s most widely circulated newspaper, dedicated its front page to a picture of the exploded bus. In a page 3 article, it was stated that the 18-year-old bomber rode the bus for 20 minutes before detonating his explosives. That seems rather dubious, even if the bus “crawled through rush-hour traffic,” since the distance from point of alighting to detonation is all of a three-minute walk. The source was cited as the police spokesman. Determining the number of wounded is a difficult task. USA Today cited 150. The Daily News mentioned 100. Perhaps the Israeli Ha’aretz newspaper gave a more meaningful number when it reported 26 still in hospital the next morning; six of those were described as in a serious condition. To give local flavor for its New York readership, the Daily News interviewed an American immigrant to Israel concerning the political aspects of the bombing (as though that immigrant had influence on events). It also ran an entire (all be it short) article about the New Jersey state senator’s daughter.

Newsday had a much more toned down picture on its front page. The bus was in the background, and in the foreground, three people were treating an injured woman. One of the three, wearing a police cap, was noticeably looking at the camera and not at the victim. (This picture also showed up on page 1 of the [New Jersey] Home News Tribune.) Description of the event was short when compared with extensive political reporting. Significant from a disaster response perspective, there was an unexplained picture on page A5 (attributed to AP) showing several sealed and numbered body bags. The bags, with pre-printed stick-on numbers, curiously had the insignia of ZAKA, a private non-profit organization.

The Spanish-language Hoy had an article only on page 16. It described in incident and the political context. None of the coverage dealt with disaster response issues. Another Spanish daily, El Diario - La Prensa, did have a referral to page 23 over a forgettable picture. The article on the inner page followed much along the lines of Hoy. Perhaps the most significant news item was the count of only some 50 wounded.

On its front page the New York Sun also showed the AP photograph of body bags lined up. This was accompanied by two other “toned down” photographs and two articles dealing with political interpretations and reactions. On page 9, two people quoted in USA Today were also quoted in the Sun. Local color was added with the detail that the daughter of a New Jersey senator was among the wounded. This was mentioned in several other newspapers.

The New York Times showed a front page photograph of three people helping a girl through a window frame of the exploded bus. The caption read, “Rescue workers helped a wounded Israeli girl…” The problem was that the three “rescue workers” were two civilians and a soldier. This was corrected somewhat in the accompanying article that explained how “rescuers” (again civilians on scene) helped extinguish flames on the bodies of several victims. Virtually the entire article was devoted to politics; there was a short description of the incident, with a photograph of “emergency workers” (in fact, ZAKA volunteers) removing a body.

Two Hebrew-language Israeli newspapers print editions in New York. Ma’ariv showed the same AP photograph as Newsday, with three people treating a female victim. The coverage, however, was more detailed than the American newspapers. On pages 6-7 a large pan-style photograph showed activity at the scene. In a report more plausible than the Daily News’ claim that the bomber was on the bus for 20 minutes, Ma’ariv placed him on the bus only for “moments.” There were extensive interviews of witnesses and first responders. One reason for this might be difficulties of certain foreign reporters (though certainly not all) with Hebrew. The ZAKA Director-General described a false alarm of a second bomb (as opposed to a verified report), together with a police command to leave the bus and to stop rescue efforts. This was attributed to “confusion” at the site. ZAKA will be distributing circulars in ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods, warning about false appearances; it is their contention that only an ultra-orthodox Jew can detect a non-Jewish imposter. On page 8 a short sentence summed up the end of the response. Water trucks came, hosed down the blood that remained on the street, and life returned to its routine.

Yediot Aharonot showed the AP body-bag picture in close-up on the front page. On page 4 the newspaper carried an interesting quote. A security guard at a local restaurant (also near the site of an earlier bombing) was leaving the bus at the stop seconds before the explosion. He remembered the bomber, “He was sweating profusely, and he seemed suspect to me.” Before the security guard could do anything, the explosion changed reality. Similar to Ma’ariv, Yediot also had more extensive interviews than the American press. It also carried the story of the injured daughter of the New Jersey State senator, with the added information that the senator was on his way to Israel.

The Star-Ledger, the largest circulating newspaper in New Jersey, had a combination of the familiar body-bag photograph and its own unique photograph. It also ran reaction interviews seen elsewhere. The newspaper included one article from the Washington Post wire service, stating that the bombing took place 15 meters from the Machne Yehuda market. The true distance is more than 100 meters.

The New York Post run much of the wire service material. It showed the photograph of a teenager rescued from the bus. The same photograph was shown as an Internet banner in a call for donations to an Israeli terror victims organization.

Many Jewish weeklies had already been closed at the time of the bombing. This was the case, for example, of the widely circulated Jewish Press. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency did make available a basic article containing the mistake that the Israeli attack nine minutes later in Gaza was in response to the bus bombing.

Jay Levinson