The Media Failure in Gaza
Media hits new low with Gaza coverage
I’ve covered countless media failures (Kavanaugh, Covington Catholic etc.) over the years, but none of them compare to the disastrous blunders on Tuesday.
A little after 2 PM ET that day, several Arabic online sources started reporting on an unfolding tragedy. Citing the Gaza Health Ministry, a Hamas-run entity, these sources claimed that Israel had bombed a hospital without notice and hundreds were dead. Within the first hour, the claim of over 500 casualties started spreading.
This should have set off alarm bells for anyone who knows anything about the conflict. Israel rarely bombs buildings filled with civilians and almost never does it without warning. The idea that any entity could come up with a casualty number that large that quickly is absurd. Most importantly, the claims were coming from a terrorist group that just carried out the worst terrorist attack in Israeli history, regularly murdered civilians, and had every incentive to lie.
Because of those considerations, I decided to get more information before commenting. Within 30 minutes, I heard from Israeli sources that Israel had no planes in the area, and they believed it was likely a misfired rocket from inside Gaza. The IDF officially said they were investigating.
Other media outlets didn’t exercise the same patience. Instead of waiting for more information, nearly all of them ran with the accusations from the terrorist group as if they were facts. That’s how eager they were to create a moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas.
The result of their careless journalism was actively misinforming millions about a serious situation and triggering a chain of deadly consequences. Even as the story developed and more information came out, the outlets were slow to react, much less issue corrections. By Wednesday there was overwhelming evidence that Israel was right and almost everything these outlets had originally reported was straight-up wrong. There is even clear evidence the casualty count was not remotely accurate, as confirmed by multiple intelligence agencies from other countries.
The story went from:
Israeli airstrike intentionally bombed a hospital without any notice, killing 500-900 people.
To:
Islamic Jihad rocket launched at Israel misfired, landing in the parking lot near the hospital and killing an unknowable, but significantly smaller, number of Palestinian civilians.
The incentive for Hamas to lie is clear. They are facing a war they can’t win themselves so they need to try to persuade outside actors to get outraged and intervene. Furthermore, the exaggerated claims served as cover for responsibility. A lot of the defense for the claim that Israel was responsible and the accompanying willingness to overlook evidence was based on the insistence that a rocket from Gaza couldn’t destroy an entire hospital and kill so many people. It was only the next day that it became clear that the hospital was practically untouched and the number killed was significantly lower. What is more distressing is how the press abetted those lies to misinform their audience and deteriorate an already dangerous situation.
Leading the brigade of failed journalism was The New York Times. The progression of headlines, stealthily edited in their digital edition, was incredible:
1) Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say
2) At Least 500 Dead in Strike on Gaza Hospital, Palestinians Say
3) At Least 500 Dead in Blast on Gaza Hospital, Palestinians Say
4) Israelis and Palestinians Blame Each Other for Blast at Gaza Hospital That Killed Hundreds
Even the last iteration was irresponsible given the overwhelming evidence and the Times giving unreasonable credence to Hamas’ claims by simply labeling them as coming from “Palestinians.”
The Times also published the claim blaming Israel in the paper with an image of a destroyed building surrounded by rubble and the story mentioned “rubble of the ruined hospital.” This was clearly meant to misinform readers because the image was from a different city, no part of the actual hospital was ruined, and there was no rubble.
Even today, after overwhelming evidence had come out and the United States verified the likely source of the explosion, many news outlets were presenting the events as disputed and citing “dueling narratives.” As if to signal they weren’t capable of distinguishing better the made-up claims of a murderous terrorist group and reality, or at least had no interest in doing so.
The media wasn’t alone in spreading this blood libel. Several members of the Congressional Hamas caucus and other major left-wing figures joined in as if trying to prove how little they care about Jews. The promotion of these lies was costly and deadly. That very night, large mobs attacked Israeli and U.S. embassies, Jews faced several attacks in the following days, and Iran signaled they were strongly considering having their proxies join the war.
On October 7, Jews suffered the worst massacre since the Holocaust. Jews then watched as college campuses and crowds across major cities celebrated the massacre and those responsible for it while hundreds were still being held captive. Finally, to make matters worse, they were then forced to defend themselves as the media and many others falsely accused the state of Israel of murdering hundreds of Palestinian civilians to cover for culprits who were trying to murder more Jews.
Shameful. It will not be easily forgotten.
Abby Phillips Confronts AOC
In an example of good journalism, Abby Phillips of CNN put on a master class by confronting AOC on her demands for a ceasefire in Gaza. Simply by asking her to explain her position, Phillips exposed that AOC had given no thought to the consequences of her demands and demonstrated little understanding of the circumstances Israel was dealing with.