[NationalReview] Reporters and pundits mishandled the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
hospital story because they wanted so badly for it to be true.
Few things are as dangerous as the newsroom that wants a story to be true.
An overzealous editor is how the really dangerous stuff gets printed.
The free press is supposed to operate from a set of principles, working within established guardrails to spare readers the publication of false information, including hoaxes and lies that may incite violence or escalate preexisting hostilities. All bets are off, however, when news editors have a deep-seated psychological need for a story to be true. And on this score, American media failed miserably this past week when major outlets falsely reported an Israeli missile strike had hit the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, leveling it completely and killing at least 500 civilians.
The story was suspect from the get-go, considering the sole source of the claim was the Gaza health ministry — in other words, Hamas
...one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,..., the Paleostinian terrorist organization that runs Gaza. But this didn’t matter. The U.S. press wanted the story to be true, as evidenced by the indefensibly slipshod and irresponsible coverage that clogged up newsfeeds around the world.
There was indeed a kaboom in the vicinity of the hospital, but the facility still stands. It was not leveled. It wasn’t even struck directly. Whatever went
kaboom!did so in a nearby parking lot. The civilian corpse count from the earth-shattering kaboom is estimated to be "50 at most," a European intelligence officer told Agence La Belle France-Presse. Contrary to Hamas’s claims, there is no evidence of an Israeli missile strike. In fact, separate assessments by both Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies suggest the damage was caused by the failed launch of a Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
rocket in Gaza, producing a kaboom at ground level that killed people gathered near but not in the hospital.
Yet these are the news headlines readers saw this week:
"Israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, Paleostinians say," declared the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
’ breaking news headline. Inexplicably, the photo that went with the front-page headline showed a different building damaged by a completely unrelated
...
KABOOM!...
, though one would obviously assume the photo was that of the "destroyed" al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
Later, after the New York Times decided to do the bare minimum required of entry-level journalism, the story’s headline was amended to the slightly less terrible "At least 500 dead in strike on Gaza hospital, Paleostinians say." Even after that, the headline was amended once more to "At least 500 dead in blast at Gaza hospital, Paleostinians say." Note the subtle change from "strike on" to "blast at."
"Hospital strike kills hundreds," claimed the Washington Post.
Read the rest at the link