HOW TERRORISTS WORK THE MEDIA By ILANA FREEDMAN - New York Post Online Edition: Postopinion

August 8, 2006 -- THE West - and in particular, the Western media - remains hopelessly naive about terrorist manipulation. My own way of putting it is: "The first story out wins." Hezbollah, Hamas, the various PLO factions and al Qaeda all use this principle to influence world opinion and decision-makers. The latest example is the tragedy at Qana. Seven hours after an Israeli airstrike on a building behind which Hezbollah was firing rockets into Israel, Hezbollah spokesmen reported 56 dead, including 34 children had been killed. Yet the International Red Cross subsequently reported 28 deaths, 16 of them children. Once the news broke, news photographers were invited to photograph the scene. Hundreds of photographs show Hezbollah and Red Cross rescue workers posing with several dead children for over an hour under the hot Lebanese sun, in shocking disrespect for the dead, before unceremoniously leaving their little bodies sprawled and uncovered on gurneys as they waited for burial. Wise media spinners rush to fill the immediate news vacuum. Indeeed, they are "miraculously" on the spot when the story breaks. To gain their PR advantage, they are willing to stage events and manufa