<...The nun quoted may have exaggerated. Do you think she made it all up?

She didn't exaggerate, nor did she make it all up. That wasn't my point. The point is that she took unverified statements from sources with a definite political agenda and repeated them verbatim without any confirmation, research, or even mild skepticism. Had the Israeli army, which of course also has its own agenda, sent her a statement, she would have immediately assumed it was a flatout lie, again without any confirmation or research.

The 12-year-old kid incident you mention is another prime example. The Palestinians claim that he was shot deliberately by Israeli forces. The Israeli army put forth their theory and evidence that the boy was actually shot by Palestinian forces. I have yet to see an objective, third party analysis of these two theories. The two links above are anything but objective, but I guess everyone has to decide for themselves which is more credible.

What usually happens is that everyone immediately snags onto the theory that fits their agenda, and don't look into it any further.

Like I said, this is a common pattern, and in many areas other than the Mideast conflict. Global warming, ANWR, and other environmental issues are prime examples of this media behavior. Environmentalists are automatically assumed to be right, and industries and pro-technology interests are automatically assumed to be lying.

People who are trusted with the transmission of information to the rest of us owe us more than this.