During the current war between Israel and Gaza (we think this is technically a civil war), one source of continual dismay is the reporting on it. The most charitable interpretation of it is that they are being negligent and we are not sure they deserve that much charity. And one of the worst behaviors we have seen over and over again, is that they keep crediting Hamass as a source of information. Like, what is the logic? ‘Sure, they will murder innocent civilians, use rape as a weapon of war, and behead babies, but we are sure they will draw the line at dishonesty?’
Mind you, sometimes the media disguises it as crediting the Gaza Health Ministry or some other official-sounding government body, but since Hamass runs Gaza, that is citing Hamass. Really, journalism during this war would improve 1,000% if they followed the principles we outlined in this post:
It’s actually not very hard.
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) October 18, 2023
1. Don’t believe anything just because Hamass says it.
2. Don’t even report what they say without independent verification. That doesn’t include repeating the UN which is repeating Hamass’ claims.
3. If you can’t stick to steps 1-2, at least warn… https://t.co/g6AnahHEkP
The full text reads:
It’s actually not very hard [to avoid serious errors in reporting].
1. Don’t believe anything just because Hamass says it.
2. Don’t even report what they say without independent verification. That [verification] doesn’t include repeating the UN which is repeating Hamass’ claims.
3. If you can’t stick to steps 1-2, at least warn the audience that your source is Hamass. Don’t call them an official sounding government name unless you also note that Hamass runs their government, so your source is really hamass.
4. Learn to be comfortable in having no idea what’s happening and to be comfortable refusing to report unverified claims. Explain to the audience that they need be comfortable with that, too.
5. Figure out that ppl sympathetic to the Hamass cause will lie constantly to you. If they’re okay with weaponized rape and the decapitation of babies, lying shouldn’t be hard for them to rationalize. Don’t trust any video or photo coming from them without proof of date, time and location.
How many people will die due to angry riots about this, because you chuckleheads didn’t follow these pretty obvious principles? I have no sympathy for this f—k up.
Recommended
And for the record, we know for a fact that Hamass has been lying about the explosion in the hospital parking lot. They have been telling two lies about that incident:
1) Israel did it, and
2) 500 people died as a result.
People have thoroughly exposed the first lie. However, we have found, when arguing online, that the easier lie to prove is that 500 people died, because the proof can be found just by examining a single video shot by a Palestinian:
Additional walkthrough of central courtyard and parking lot area of the Ahli Hospital in Gaza, after the explosion last night. pic.twitter.com/r37HAuE586
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 18, 2023
The video itself is all you need to refute the claim that 500 people died, for two reasons.
First, have you ever been in a hospital parking lot late at night? There aren’t typically very many people there. Even when we go to a pretty big hospital, such as Inova Fairfax here in the D.C. area, we are lucky to see anyone else at all. We would be surprised if that hospital parking lot had even a dozen people present, let alone 500.
Second, have you ever seen a major casualty event? We are old enough to remember the Oklahoma City bombing and its aftermath. It was not this pristine the next morning. There were not only dead bodies everywhere, but there were still survivors present. For instance, ‘The Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management After Action Report’ said that on the day after the bombing
Special Agent Kennedy made it clear in his initial April 20th meeting that priorities were as follows: 1. locate any survivors; 2. remove any victims; and, 3. process the crime scene.
Oklahoma City was a massacre of over 168 souls, including some children. Tim McVeigh—now serving as Satan’s cabana boy—intentionally placed the bomb close to a day care specifically because he wanted to murder children. Yet even the next day, in a nation largely at peace, we hadn’t even removed all of the survivors. But in the Gaza hospital video, taken the next day, there are no bodies, no body parts, and no blood. Are we supposed to believe that, in the midst of war, Hamass managed to remove more than 3 times the number of casualties in a few hours at night?
And, of course, Palestinians are not shy about parading around with the dead bodies of people allegedly killed by Israel, yet we aren’t seeing that, either.
No, Hamass was lying. We wouldn’t be shocked if there were some casualties. But we would be surprised if more than a dozen people died, because there was unlikely to be even a dozen people there. And with it established that Hamass lied to us, can we stop believing them on anything? Can we stop reprinting their unverified claims?
We (and other conservatives) have been saying this for days on TSMSFKA Twitter (The Social Media Site Formerly Known As Twitter) with little avail. But then, surprisingly, someone else joined the chorus:
Below is today’s lead headline at @latimes. The Times simply accepts what terrorist organization Hamas said even though it’s false. This both sides journalism is factually wrong. A true headline would say “Rage spreads over Gaza hospital blast amid false narrative from Hamas.” pic.twitter.com/Uiv77e9IqF
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 19, 2023
We would love it if the congresscritter also called out the incorrect spelling of Hamass (it’s spelled like ‘Ham ass,’ sir!), but we’ll take what we can get.
Seriously, how crazy is this timeline getting if Ted Lieu is the voice of reason against the LA Times?
The LA Times is your side’s media outlet.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 19, 2023
You helped create this pro-Hamas, cancel culture, woke universities, Sanctuary cities, open border society. https://t.co/sFr0n1Z6QZ
I'm proud our paper has the integrity to independently investigate all claims.
— Jack Herrera (@jherrerx) October 19, 2023
Politicians will always criticize journalists for doing our jobs.
But we've learned our lessons: "Iraqi has WMDs"; "Palestinians killed Shireen Abu Akleh"; "We blew up Kunduz hospital by accident" https://t.co/bovbFwIzHK
First, we don’t think any of the American press is actually investigating. We are pretty sure they aren’t even going into Gaza. And, to be fair, we wouldn’t expect to see too many American reporters in Germany or Japan during World War II. But let’s not pretend that they are going to go to the site with lab equipment and a forensic scientist.
Second, one can investigate Hamass’s allegations without printing their unverified claims. We didn’t say ‘don’t look into it.’ We are saying they shouldn’t print it without independent verification.
WHAT IS HAPPENING https://t.co/mJo6AhhRhy
— Federalist Musket🇺🇸 (@Patriot_Musket) October 19, 2023
And, of course, there is always someone ready to say the Jooooooooooooooos are actually the liars:
We'd write a rebuttal, but he kind of refuted himself.
😱 I AGREE with @RepTedLieu ?!? https://t.co/OZLmWD3HKU
— Dean Cain (@RealDeanCain) October 19, 2023
Listen up, bish @RashidaTlaib 👇🏼 https://t.co/eB8UbYjqQh
— Lizzy Lou Who 🎃 (@_wintergirl93) October 19, 2023
Lawmakers suggesting headlines to the media is a bit much. https://t.co/TW9Ojq7xON
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 19, 2023
He’s allowed under the First Amendment to criticize the LA Times as long as he doesn’t become coercive about it.
No one has been able or allowed to independently investigate what happened from the ground, and the media's job isn't to just take the IDF or Hamas or the Pentagon or attendees of a classified Senate briefing's word for it. Pretty simple stuff https://t.co/WwG91nQhn1
— Paul Blest (@pblest) October 19, 2023
We think there is nothing wrong with printing what Israel says with the caveat that this is unverified. Hamass should not get the same courtesy.
Now you know how we feel about the media, they push their preferred agaenda and it's usually whatever Democrats want. Unfortunately their hatred of Jews outweighs reality. Glad we can finally agree on something. https://t.co/KUglMaAppZ
— Scott Coleman (@bandphan) October 19, 2023
Thank you @tedlieu!
— AIPAC | Text ISRAEL to 24722 | #StandWithIsrael (@AIPAC) October 19, 2023
Absolutely outrageous.
⁰A terrorist group that just massacred 1,400 Israelis should never be trusted for facts and information. https://t.co/n96Jiwup9o
Right?!?!?!?!
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