Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: Obsessing About Gaza, Ignoring Syria (and Most Everything Else) [View all]King_David
(14,851 posts)The second reason is audience interest. Stories about Israel, and about Jews, almost automatically rise to the top of the Times most-emailed list. Stories about Miramshah or Fallujah, not nearly as much. Im guessing this is true for other American outlets as well. And then there is a sound political reason why this conflict becomes the focus of so much coverage. Israel is a close ally of the U.S., and a recipient of American military and non-military help. This may make you very happy, or very unhappy, but the fact of it is incontrovertible. Therefore, the U.S. has a direct relationship with one of the players in this conflict (both, actually, because the Palestinian Authority is the recipient of a great deal of American aid as well). There is also the issue of double standards, which I wrote about here at length, but in short, Israel is a Western-style democratic state and so reporters are more apt to be interested in its behavior, and judgmental about its behavior, than in the behavior of despotic regimes.
http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/obsessing-about-gaza-ignoring-syria-and-most-everything-else/374898/