Any journalist worth their salt knows that their work
requires describing what has happened, and reporting the whole story. When
reporters are unable to determine exactly what happened, standard procedure is
to report what the various parties claim, and let the readers make their own
judgments.
Those simple standards, however, were repeatedly not
met by numerous reporters covering the latest flare-up of violence between
Israel and terror organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
More than 600 rockets have been
fired at Israel since Saturday morning, and Israel is responding by targeting terrorists,
as well as Islamic Jihad and Hamas’s facilities. Amid the ongoing exchange of
fire, a pregnant woman and her 14-month old daughter were killed in unclear
circumstances. Despite the IDF refusing to accept
responsibility for the deaths, Palestinian sources were
predictably swift to blame Israel, and the British media quickly picked up on
the story.
The IDF later put out a statement on Twitter,
reading: “Today we can say with certainty, after looking into the event, that
they were killed as a result of an explosion of combustible materials during
the activation of a Hamas explosive device.” A later tweet went further,
accusing journalists of complicity, saying they had “amplified the lie.”
Yesterday,
Palestinian weapons caused the tragic death of a mother in Gaza and her baby.
Hamas blamed Israel. Journalists amplified the lie. Our assessment indicates
that the incident had nothing to do with IDF strikes.
Headline Fails
More than any other part of an article, headlines
matter the most. The vast majority of people don’t read any given article, only
skimming through newspapers and social media feeds. As such, headlines frame
the way people read and remember stories.
Despite the paucity of evidence to back up the claim
that the IDF was responsible for the deaths, numerous media services parroted
the claims put out by the Hamas-run Gazan Ministry of Health – frequently in
the most prominent place – the headline.
Another example came courtesy of Sky
News, with
a headline published on Sunday afternoon saying only that a “Pregnant
Palestinian woman and baby [were] killed in Gaza violence.” The article
documents the death of the two within the context of “a fresh round of violence
between Israel and militants in Gaza.” Only in the seventh paragraph does the
article mention that “the Israeli military insisted the pair died due to a
misfiring Palestinian rocket.”
Sky News: “Pregnant Palestinian woman and baby killed in Gaza
violence”
The same issue surfaced in a report on the website of British
television channel ITV which claimed
that “A baby girl and her pregnant aunt were among six killed by Israeli
airstrikes in Gaza.”
ITV claims baby and pregnant aunt were “killed
after Israel airstrikes”
Over at The
Independent, the
massive barrage of over 400 rockets fired from Gaza on Israel was totally
omitted from the Middle East section homepage until Sunday morning. When events
were eventually covered, the headline framed developments as if terrorists in
Gaza had no role in the violence, and insinuated that Israel was responsible
for the death of the mother and baby. The original article (archived
here) said
without qualification that “A pregnant mother and her 14-month-old baby girl
have been killed by an Israeli airstrike, as cross-border violence continues
near Gaza.”
Independent headline: Mother and baby killed as
Israel hits Gaza with airstrikes
Meanwhile at The
Daily Mail, the same claim was again quoted in the headline
despite the IDF’s protestations that it was not involved in
the death of the pregnant Gazan mother.
No @MailOnline, when something "rains down," it's
indiscriminate. The only thing raining down right now is Palestinian rockets on
Israel. The Israeli response is pinpointed. Your headline is inverted.
The Mail’s coverage originally stated that “Gaza’s Health Ministry
said a 14-month-old girl, Seba Abu Arar, was killed in an Israeli airstrike
that hit their home,” but failed to mention that the claim was disputed by
Israel. The article was later update to acknowledge the IDF’s version of
events.
As HonestReporting tweeted on Sunday, journalists are responsible
for telling the whole story, not just the parts that fit in with their
worldview. Anything less is a professional failure.
Whether journalists believe the
IDF's statements or not, the media have a duty to report the story fully.
Telling one side alone is willfully naive at best, and a worrying betrayal of
the truth at worst.
The leader of the antisemitic pack is the BBC and always has been.
ReplyDeleteSince the BBC is a national broadcasting corporation funded by the British public and thus by the British state, it is a state actor. Its malice is an attack on the state of Israel. This is not an exaggeration, especially when considering the abslutely enormous impact the BBC has on both its audience of one billion people and also considering the disproportionate weight the BBC's pronouncements have throughout the world of journalism - the global media that swallow BBC pronouncements daily.
The government of Israel should - MUST - at this point respond to BBC lies and distortions each and every time they occur and must do so at the state level via the Israel Foreign Office - even if this requires an entirely new office and staff dedicated to dealing with this enemy.