How do you judge whether a news story is legitimate?

Question

Recently, some anti Israel people in this forum posted a news story from Al Jazeera or Ma'an News that claims that Israel is sending mercenaries to help Gadaffi. These sources, in turn, cited an Israeli news source (seems to be a tabloid). This Israeli news source, in turn, citied unnamed Egyptian sources for its story. There is no indication that they verified whether the story is true.
That being the case, it seems to me that the entire story is suspect.
So, my question then is: How do you tell if a news story is legitimate or not? What criteria do you apply?

Answer 1

To clarify the specific "report", I looked it up for you in Hebrew and tracked it back from there.

The story seems to have started in Iranian official media. [See: http://www.israellycool.com/2011/03/03/something-else-to-blame-on-the-jooooos/#idc-container ]



The claim in Maan Arabic News was attributed to unnamed "Egyptian sources". Interestingly, when Egypt recently blamed the Jews for sending sharks to Sharm, Arabic papers at least named the Egyptian government minister who thought up the claim. However, for the mercenary story, AlJazeera cited NO source. (On the contrary, they mentioned that an Israeli denies the story.)



Note that Maariv reported that Al Jazeera suddenly REMOVED its initial story!

http://www.the7eye.org.il/PaperReview/Pages/070311_Both_sides_claim_victory.aspx

I'd take that as a retraction for the moment.



"Inyan Merkazi" --the site that publicized in Hebrew the alleged Egyptian claims-- is not much of a newspaper. (I'm Israeli, and I don't recall ever hearing of the site till now.) It seems to have a lot of reposted stories from the Israeli Ynet online paper.

A pertinent question to explore is: Why black African migrant workers are paying the price for the real or perceived use of mercenaries in Libya http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/why-black-africans-are-paying-the-price-for-the-real-or-perceived-use-of-mercenaries-in-libya/article1933381/ The article provides perspective on whether many mercenaries are involved in the Libyan regime or whether allied tribes that support Kaddafi are falsely being labelled as "mercenaries".

Meanwhile, over at Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Libyan rebels stated that SYRIAN pilots are flying Kaddafi's warplanes.



All considered, the accusation that Israelis are behind Kaddafi's paid African fighters is (ahem) dubious at best.

Answer 2

I search Google from their home page using words specific to the info I'm researching -- in this case, "Israel sending mercenaries help Gaddafi" (but without the quotes). Then I scour the listings for sources that may be viable. I visit those sources and see how they measure-up:



Is the article written in good English and state credible sources for claims?

Or is the article sensationalist and/or written with a particular agenda?



^EDIT^ found what I thought was an "unbiased" source, but upon re-checking, I found it to be a Neo-Nazi website disguised as "American."



I cannot find any viable, credible sources of this "news." And therefore, I do not believe it -- yet. Anything is possible in a world full of humans, but ALL of the sources of this particular story are jew-hating or Israel-haters. And they cannot be trusted -- they are usually the enemy.

Answer 3

If the story shows the viewpoint of both side equally then it can be considered legitimately objective. Sources from both sides of the conflict should be named before being heard, and spokemen or PR people are automatically disqualified. Also you have to look at pejorative descriptors as any use of this immediately disqualifies an article.



Your Israeli media is guilty of this bias as well, so don't go lumping it all on Al-Jazeera. Nobody is as bad as my media though.

Answer 4

I do not think it was Israel is sending the mercs, but an Israeli company. And the Liberty was deliberate. Israel knew the ship was there, the claim it was Russian destroyer was discounted by radio broadcasts amd teh ship was POSITIVELY identified as teh AMERICAN ship GTR-5. Perhaps you can explain why the Americans wouldn't let Congress investigate the incident and why today the info is still classified. "Authorization to attack was issued by the chief air controller, Lieutenant Colonel Shmuel Kislev, immediately after a recorded exchange between a command headquarters weapons systems officer, one of the air controllers, and the chief air controller questioning a possible American presence" James Scott, The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship p215

It's a shame the Liberty wasn't sunk. Johnson could have attacked Egypt (and in fact was moments from doing so). Unfortunately, the Liberty got a distress signal out.

Answer 5

A reasonable question This article was written by an Edward Teller not I may add the famous nuclear scientist but there are others you can choose from

I have used this link in a couple of my answers but like most links we find really do not know if they are true or not unless its published by a very reliable sourse such as the British Guardian and even they get it wrong sometimes . Here is the link in question so users can judge for themselves. If I had to put money on it I would say its true

http://my.firedoglake.com/edwardteller/2011/03/03/israeli-company-hires-gadhafis-mercenaries-with-approval-of-the-israeli-government/

Answer 6

i think that knowledge and common sense will give you the tools to make a good judgement of the things you see or read.

you can adquire knowledge by reading and investigating more from books, magazines, etc

Answer 7

It is very easy to spot Hasbara as long as it is straight from the horse's mouth and Aljazeera is no angel.



That is a very accurate description of CALCULATING Zionists.

Answer 8

You can't. All news media has a bias one way or another.