I was recently having dinner with two friends when politics happened to come up (and no, I wasn't the one to get us started on politics).  Concerning the war at least one friend, if not both, stated the obvious that amongst other things the war has cost us much in terms of world opinion.  It wasn't a particularly long conversation, but in regards to world opinion I basically stated that one should be wary about exactly how those opinions are formed.  Not that someone, or in this case a great many people, cannot have a different opinion, but what if it's a misinformed opinion (not to mention people who don't follow the news themselves but just regurgitate what their peers say)?  What if the opinions of the many are not very well informed or have been misled in so many different ways?  In that case, how much emphasis can one put on that large body of opinion?

My example is the link below and concerns much of western opinion concerning Israel and the Middle East.  It appears that yet again another mainstream media outlet (this one in France this time) has been caught basically fabricating a pro-Palestinian story to fit the template that they have been pushing on the west for decades now and that is one of a brutal Israel that does not have a care in the world towards Palestinians.  This time it was France 2 that was caught in the act.  This is not the only story like this -- they are put out there by "respectable" news organizations every single day in order to push the political agenda that many in the newsrooms support.  And sometimes instead of it being a scripted story, it could just be that the reporter doesn't even understand what he or she has just witnessed because, yes, reporters are human and do make mistakes as well.  Mistakes, however, that can have dire consequences because of the number of people that they reach who won't even know that a particular story has been corrected or redacted.

Now, when reading the linked article, think about this...just how, and how much, has "world opinion" been formed based on news stories like this one?  This video was not just carried by France 2 and seen only in France, but was seen all over the world, and once again, these types of false stories are put out there at least weekly if not daily by "reputable" news agencies (i.e. Newsweek and their false story about Korans being flushed down the toilet in Guantanamo Bay which lead to massive riots across the Muslim world as well as many deaths).  So, while I do not give much credence to a "world opinion" knowing that many are forming some of their opinions based on scripted news, misinformed opinions do worry me.

Al Durah Blood Libel