November 10, 2002

What's a Settlement? In a headline MSNBC uses the term settlement to describe a kibbutz in northern Israel that was the victim of a terror attack. Since the kibbutz in question, Kibbutz Metzer was founded in 1953, the term settlement cannot be used because it is a new kibbutz; it was just sloppy writing. The editors assumed that only West Bank villages and towns (e.g. settlements) are the victim of terror attacks and without even looking at the article used the term settlement. The Toronto Star, which used an AP report that correctly identifies the kibbutz as in Israel, uses the headline Air strikes follow Israeli settlement killings and the subheadline, Two children among five settlers killed by Palestinian gunman. Clearly they too were lazy in writing the headlines. 7:34:02 PM