Immediately after a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket misfired, causing an explosion in the parking lot of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, much of the Western media immediately repeated the Hamas claim that an Israeli airstrike was to blame. Few in the media bothered to question the Hamas claim, or were willing to wait — just a few hours — for Israel to complete its own investigation of the incident. And that reporting of the Hamas charge as true set off violent demonstrations in many Muslim countries. Now that it is crystal clear that Israel was not to blame, many are criticizing that same media for disseminating falsehoods. One of the critics is Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu. More on his criticism can be found here: “Ted Lieu accuses NY Times of ‘intentionally’ writing false headline for Gaza hospital report to draw clicks,” by Kristine Parks, Fox News, October 20, 2023:
…Users on X roasted the paper for its initial headline, which read, “Israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, Palestinians say.” The Democratic congressman joined media watchdogs and conservative commentators criticizing the paper in an X post on Thursday.
“I agree the @nytimes didn’t ‘botch’ the Gaza hospital story. They did something worse,” Lieu wrote. “They intentionally wrote an attention-grabbing headline that falsely pointed the blame at Israel to generate clicks during breaking news, without waiting for confirmation or the actual facts.”
A New York Times spokesperson defended the outlet’s coverage in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“During any breaking news event, we report what we know as we learn it. We apply rigor and care to what we publish, explicitly citing sources and noting when a piece of news is breaking and likely to be updated. And as the facts on the ground become more clear, we continue reporting. Our extensive and continued reporting on the hospital in Gaza makes explicit the murkiness surrounding the events there,” the spokesperson said.
But the New York Times rushed to judgment, accepting the word of Hamas, which has repeatedly been found to lie in the past, without giving Israel a chance to respond with its own claims.
Lieu also admonished the Los Angeles Times for its Thursday paper headline on the attack.
“Below is today’s lead headline at @latimes. The Times simply accepts what terrorist organization Hamas said even though it’s false,” he wrote. “This both sides journalism is factually wrong. A true headline would say ‘Rage spreads over Gaza hospital blast amid false narrative from Hamas,’” he scolded….
A number of media outlets were chastised for repeating Hamas’s claim that Israel was at fault for the explosion….
It is not only the fact that so much of the mainstream media repeated, without any hint of doubt, the claim put out by Hamas blaming Israel for the explosion in the hospital parking lot (Hamas deliberately claimed that the hospital itself had been hit; it wasn’t). Worse, even after the American government announced that its own investigation confirmed Israel’s version of events, that not an Israeli airstrike, but an errant rocket fired from Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had ignited an explosion, many in the media continued to report that an “Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Ahli hospital.”
What was it that made so many in the media take seriously a claim made by Hamas, that has long shown itself to be a serial liar, and rush to publish or broadcast it, rather than wait to find out what Israel, conducting its own scrupulous investigation, determined or, better still, wait for the findings of the American government?
Congressman Ted Lieu thinks that in the case of The New York Times, it was simply a desire to attract more eyes, more clicks on the newspaper’s links. The scandal was that the truth did not matter to the New York Times. It wanted to run with a sensational headline and story, and here’s what the Times came up with: “Israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, Palestinians say.”
No part of that headline is true. First, It was not an “Israeli strike,” but a rocket launched from Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that misfired. Second, it was not “hundreds” of people who were killed but, according to Western intelligence services, between 10 and 50 people died. Third, the explosion was not in the hospital itself, but in the parking lot next to the hospital.
It would be nice to think that the New York Times will do some soul-searching about its hideously unfair coverage of Israel as the Jewish state fights its fourth war for its survival. The Times could start by examining how its reporters and editors hastened to accept the Hamas version, and to blame Israel for the explosion at the parking lot in Gaza. Perhaps this fiasco will cause some on the Times to be more thoughtful in their weighing of available evidence — Hamas provided none, and Israel a great deal — and be less quick to credit Hamas’ fabrications, and more willing to wait for the findings of both the Israeli and the American governments. Yes, that would be a good start. But does anyone think that will happen?
Clifford Fodor says
…much of the Western media immediately repeated the Hamas claim that an Israeli airstrike was to blame. Few in the media bothered to question the Hamas claim, or were willing to wait — just a few hours — for Israel to complete its own investigation of the incident.
That’s why MSM has so little creditability most Americans.
bill says
Why does anybody except for anti-semites of course even bother with the NYT. WAPO is not much better either. Who trusts them to provide truthful news?
As for the BBC I gave up listening to their reports long ago