Selective

Who are the sources? A non biased article will have sources from both the official Palestinian and official Israeli sides. A journalist can try to make a biased article seem fair by presenting Jewish/Israeli sources, but those sources may not be pro Israel. There are far left Jews who are more interested in the standard socialist/communist belief that Israel is merely a colonial extension of the USA. For these Jews, the fact that we have fought a land rights battle for over 1800 years does not matter. As communists, many of them see religion as being "the opiate of the people" and therefore do not even believe in G-d. The "peace camp" is made up of many such Jews. Other Jews who are anti Israel are members of insular cults, such as the Satmar. They do not believe in Israel due to non mainstream messianic views.

An article accusing the Israeli Defense Forces of a brutal event may appear at first to have been fairly sourced because you see a couple of Palestinian views then a couple of Jewish views. Have the sources been sufficiently identified so that you know the article is balanced? Is the secular Jew condemning Israel in that article a far left speaker? Is that religous Jew a Satmar Jew? If so, then the journalist has selected his sources to create the outcome of the article. It is therefore biased against Israel.

In all the best court room dramas, one often hears the witnesses take an oath to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". Selective omission refers to what has been left out. It is always a good idea when reading articles about events in Israel to also check a pro Israel news site such as Arutz Sheva. This will let you know if vital facts have been omitted.

Another rule of thumb is to see if the following questions are answered: "Who, What, Where, When, Why"

Who was that Palestinian killed? Was he/she a known terrorist? The running tally of Israeli dead vs Palestinian dead never answers these questions. The number of Palestinian dead always includes the suicide bombers, gun men and terrorists who accidentally blow themselves up while making bombs. The Israeli dead can be seen from our links page under "israeli eyes". Most are innocent citizens of Israel who were going about their daily lives.

What was the situation?

Where did the event happen?

When did this occur?

Why did this action take place? Too often we read about Palestinian houses being demolished. The building of illegal and unsafe housing in East Jerusalem is at a very high level. If the Israeli government pull down these illegal houses, they are only doing the same thing the Australian government would do if someone were to build a house without the correct permits. Maybe the house was being used by terrorist snipers to target Israeli children?

If any of these five simple questions are not answered in a news report, the omission may have lead to an inaccurate angle that is biased against Israel.

An imbalanced report presents the story from just one perspective. A balanced report will include sources from both sides as well as giving equal coverage. If three Palestinian sources are quoted and not one Israeli source, the report is immediately imbalanced. If three Israeli sources are quoted, each being given a paragraph but on the other side, a Palestinian source is given 20 paragraphs, then the story is also imbalanced.