Spot the Difference

Let's do some media observing.

Here's the first paragraph of a story that appeared in the media:

Unidentified gunmen fired at the convoy of a Palestinian cabinet minister from the Islamist movement Hamas in the West Bank on Saturday, wounding one of his escorts. Hamas condemned the attack and said its political rival Fatah was responsible, Palestinian news media reported.

Here's one headline of that story (version 1):-

Palestinian militants attack Hamas minister's car in W. Bank

And here's another (version 2):-

Palestinian Militants Spark Gunbattle

And here's another (version 3):-

Palestinian Official’s Convoy Is Attacked in the West Bank

There is a difference in each one.

First, two headlines prefer "militants" even thought the story uses "gunmen" and "gunmen" even has less letters. The term "militants", as my readers know, softens one's attitude toward vicious terrorists.

One headline leads you to believe that there was just a one-sided incident while another informs you that there was an exchange.

One, though, simply states the fact, there was an attack and let's the body of the report explain the situation to you. It doesn't seek to persuade you or otherwise exhibit any bias.

So, can you guess which media outlet is involved in each of the above headlines?

No?

Well, Version 2 is the AP.

And Version 3 is the New York Times:

And Haaretz, liberal, post-Zionist, compromising Haaretz is
Version 1.

Amazing that Haaretz beat out even the NYT.