Remember that bit about all the blind men trying to describe an elephant by touch? Sometimes I think the media is like that. Anyone who thinks that news reporting is always objective might want to glance through the headlines describing the recent exchange between SecState Clinton and the Palestinians:

CNN: Palestinians blast Clinton for Israel praise
Jerusalem (CNN) — Palestinian leaders angrily dismissed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s praise for Israel on Sunday, openly questioning her ability to jumpstart peace talks just hours after she left Israel.

NY Times: Clinton asks Abbas to return to talks
JERUSALEM — Dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed Saturday to persuade the Palestinian leader to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

XinhuaNet: PNA urges US to maintain credibility
RAMALLAH, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — The Palestinian National Authority(PNA) on Sunday urged the U.S. administration to maintain its credibility as a sponsor of stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The call was made after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported Israel’s demands to resume the negotiations with the Palestinians without preconditions.

Jerusalem Post: PA to US: Coerce settlement freeze
Palestinian Authority officials on Sunday warned that Washington’s failure to force Israel to halt all construction in the settlements would lead to an “explosion.” (Interestingly, the page title of this article doesn’t match the actual headline–the title is “Palestinians upset with Clinton after praise for Israel”)

Reuters: Palestinians accuse US of killing peace prospects
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Pointing an accusing finger at the United States, the Palestinians on Sunday said Washington’s backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

BBC: Clinton urges new Middle-East Talks
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the Israelis and Palestinians to restart talks “as soon as possible”.

I generally advocate reading many different news sources to try and get a clear picture of what’s going on…but maybe that just confuses.