As I noted yesterday, the BBC is happy to place casualty figures supplied by Hamas as front-page news. The Beeb, of course, is far from alone in pushing a Hamas line: across western media it's generally the same story. And never more so than with the latest hostage rescue...
From Honest Reporting - Biased Coverage of Gaza Hostage Rescue Serves Hamas.
Media outlets went out of their way on Saturday (June 8) to make Israel’s heroic rescue of four Gaza hostages look tainted or even immoral, with a reframing that served Hamas’ strategy.
Instead of simply reporting the news — that Israeli hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv had been rescued in a rare and complex operation in the heart of Gaza — media outlets chose to label it as one of the “bloodiest” raids of the war.
They used three tactics to achieve that goal, which effectively turned justice into injustice:
- Minimizing the achievement by using the term “freed” instead of “rescued” to describe the hostages
- Emphasizing the Palestinian death toll based on Hamas figures
- Whitewashing the terrorists’ use of civilians as human shields
The Washington Post, for instance, headlined with the number of Palestinians killed - "more than 200" - called the operation "one of the bloodiest raids of the war", and "brazen".
The fact that the hostages were rescued alive is mentioned only in the second paragraph. And the word “Blitz” is casually thrown into the fifth paragraph, evoking comparisons to Nazi warfare.
But what’s hidden in plain sight is the complete whitewashing of Hamas’ strategy of using civilians as human shields. The article simply mentions that the hostages had been held in “buildings,” omitting the fact that they were kept in families’ homes in the crowded multi-story structures, amid the civilian population.
NPR‘s coverage has similar faults: The Palestinian death toll is used to frame the hostage rescue with descriptions like “the streets were…covered in blood,” and the sites of the hostage captivity are called “locations in Nuseirat in central Gaza” — which could mean anything from tunnels to military compounds.
Did the Washington Post or NPR journalists independently verify whether the blood in the streets belonged to terrorists or innocent civilians? Or is blood used here — as in ancient times — to demonize Jews?
Either way, their coverage whitewashes the terrorists.
Reuters, which also called the operation “one of the single bloodiest Israeli assaults of the eight-month-old war,” used another tactic while focusing on the Palestinian casualties.
One of its headlines used the vague term “freed,” which can be attributed to the goodwill of the terrorists, instead of the value-laden word “rescued” that may paint Hamas as bad.
The emphasis, across the board, was on Hamas-supplied casualty figures.
And a BBC anchorwoman expected the IDF to warn Gazans ahead of such a dangerous rescue operation:
You couldn't make this up. A raid dependent on the element of total surprise and a @BBCNews anchor asks whether the IDF should have warned Palestinians first.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 9, 2024
Maybe Israeli special forces should've also politely knocked on the doors of the houses where the hostages were held? 🤦♂️ https://t.co/6XJ23MC6kq
The underlying premise of such biased coverage is that Israelis should not fight for their lives because it comes at a cost. They should just sit back and let terrorists slaughter and kidnap their brethren because they run and hide among innocent people.
But media should stop ignoring the increasing evidence of Gazan civilian complicity with Hamas, as well as the fact that Hamas bears responsibility for putting the entire Gazan population in danger since its October 7th attack on the Jewish state.
On Saturday, Israeli special forces undertook a mission in an area that became a legitimate target by virtue of the presence of hostages. As Noa, Almog, Andrey, and Shlomi were rescued after eight months in captivity, Hamas terrorists fired RPGs at them from within the Nuseirat market area. IDF troops responded to save their lives and bring them home.
Any other way to frame it serves the terrorists.
Of possible relevance to that BBC anchorwoman, from the JC - Hamas terrorists holding hostages told to kill them if they think IDF is coming.
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