Lies, Damned Lies and The Guardian

Consider the following headline as it might appear in a newspaper:
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Suspect: “I killed my neighbour”
Yesterday local police interviewed Mr Joe Bloggs following the death of his neighbour. He told our reporter “ I killed my neighbour”.
(End of story.)
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Suppose now that the actual words said by Mr Bloggs to the reporter were:

"The police believe I killed my neighbour. I swear to you, it’s totally untrue – I really liked the guy and would do nothing to hurt him.”
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Note that the first quotation, as it might be used by a mendacious newspaper, is 100% accurate – the words cited are indeed (some of ) the words used by Mr Bloggs.

If you believe that such malicious reporting is impossible by a newspaper such as the Guardian, well, think again. The newspaper would not get away with it in a court of English Law. But when it comes to Israel and the Guardian, anything goes.

Here is an account by the Guardian of the “words” of Mrs Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, taken from the Aljazeera-leaked Palestine Papers, as reported on the 24 January 2011:

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'The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.' Tzipi Livni, then Israeli foreign minister
____________________________________________________ The paper now acknowledges that the actual words of Israel’s one-time Foreign Minister were:
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"I understand the sentiments of the Palestinians when they see the settlements being built. The meaning from the Palestinian perspective is that Israel takes more land, that the Palestinian state will be impossible, the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state."

On February 12th the paper, in a small aside, acknowledged that their selective quote, as given above the correct version, “may have given a misleading impression”. Hats off to Just Journalism for squeezing this reluctant admission from the Guardian.

May have given a misleading impression? If it is the Guardian’s intention to foster hatred of the Jewish state, they are doing a very good job. However, if they believe that anyone can now take seriously anything they report on Israeli politics - well – they have just blown it.