‘Shame on int’l media’
US publication The New York Times issued on Monday an unprecedented admission that it had ‘relied too heavily on claims by Hamas’ in its reporting of an explosion at a Gaza hospital
Daily TribuneUS publication The New York Times issued on Monday an unprecedented admission that it had ‘relied too heavily on claims by Hamas’ in its reporting of an explosion at a Gaza hospital
As the conflict between the state of Israel and the Hamas terror organization intensifies, international media coverage has thus far been described as dismal and heavily slanted against the Jewish nation.
Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss cited as an example the Hamas missile attack on the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, which was hit directly a few days after the 7 October attack by a rocket fired from Gaza, resulting in Israeli deaths and injuries.
In contrast, an explosion on 17 October at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that resulted in a massive number of fatalities and injuries was splashed all over broadcast and print media and was immediately blamed on an Israeli air strike, a narrative peddled by Hamas.
Investigations by Israel and the United States proved that a missile launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Gaza-based terror group more radical than Hamas, had misfired and landed on the hospital grounds.
"Nobody in the media reported that an Israeli hospital was bombed in Ashkelon, which had so many patients injured and killed. The rockets were shot at the hospital. No media picked it up and condemned nobody," Fluss lamented during an interview with Daily Tribune editors.
"So, for me, this incident is a shame on the international media. These news (outfits) and (media) people sort of still live with this image that it is the ratings that must (dictate the news coverage)," Fluss said.
New York Times sorry
US publication The New York Times issued on Monday an unprecedented admission that it had "relied too heavily on claims by Hamas" in its reporting of an explosion at a Gaza hospital.
The newspaper issued the statement five days after running a headline on its front page, above the fold, reading: "Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say."
"The Times' initial accounts attributed the claim of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian officials and noted that the Israeli military said it was investigating the blast," according to NYT's editor's note.
"However, the early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert, and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified," the NYT continued.
NYT editors also acknowledged that "the report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was."
The note said Times reporters quickly edited the story on the website, as Israeli officials denied striking the hospital.
Nonetheless, it added, "Given the sensitive nature of the news during a widening conflict and the prominent promotion it received, Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation and been more explicit about what information could be verified."
Islamic Jihad missile
Israeli officials have vehemently denied responsibility for the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital and have released audio files of Hamas officials admitting that the blast was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad projectile that fell onto Gaza.
Also provided were images showing that the parking lot where the blast occurred did not have a crater in the ground, and there was no structural damage to nearby buildings, both of which typically would have been left by an Israeli Defense Forces strike.
Recurring phenomena
Media bias, as Fluss indicated, is a persistent issue. Terror groups like Hamas know this and take full advantage to sway public opinion.
"As a result, coverage is often selective, stories get framed misleadingly, or certain perspectives go missing," according to the American Jewish Committee, or AJC, which is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people.
"Instead of focusing on Hamas' massacre of Israeli civilians, Israel's efforts to thwart terrorists, destroy terrorist headquarters and weapons sites, and prevent more civilian deaths, some major media outlets characterize Israel's targeted response as attacks on innocent and beleaguered Palestinians — feeding an unequivocally false narrative," the AJC said.
It added that Western media outlets often use the term "militant" to describe Hamas and other terrorist groups.
For example, in the New York Times coverage of Hamas' unprovoked attack on Israel on 7 October, the word "terrorists" was nowhere to be found on the front page of its website.
The AJC said, "Hamas is not a militant group. It is a terrorist organization internationally designated as such by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, and others that has fired thousands of rockets and slaughtered Israeli civilians in cold blood."
Hamas has set two long-term goals articulated in its charter: The end of the Jewish state and the creation of an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. In the current conflict, Hamas has murdered over 300 Israelis and wounded nearly 2,000.
"Using the term 'militant' to describe Hamas diminishes the true threat that the terror group poses. Media outlets need to call a terrorist a terrorist," the AJC added.
No occupation
Some media accounts on the Gaza Strip often blame Israel's "occupation" as the root cause of the conflict.
Fluss pointed out, however, that Israel does not occupy the Gaza Strip and has had no presence in the coastal enclave for nearly two decades.
From 1948 to 1967, the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt, which took control of the territory during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, also known as Israel's War of Independence. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
In 2005, Israel, facing huge political pushback, withdrew from the Gaza Strip, and dismantled its settlements and military forces in the name of peace and in hopes of creating a better future.
However, those hopes were shattered after Hamas came to power through elections and, with it, violence and rocket attacks on Israeli civilian population centers.
Since 2007, when Hamas violently ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip, it began launching tens of thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Hamas terrorists also infiltrated Israel through land, sea, and air incursions from Gaza to murder and abduct Israeli civilians. Over 600 Israelis were murdered on the 7 October large-scale infiltration into Israeli territory from Gaza.
