As Twitchy readers know, WaPo got lambasted for reporting that Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas were simply 'detained'.
The Washington Post's Paul Farhi addressed the controversy in a larger piece about the difficulty … er … struggle … umm … plight … of the media when choosing words that introduce obvious bias into their reporting.
“Militants”? “Terrorists”? And more. The news media navigates a war of words in reporting on Gaza and Israel. Latest by me. https://t.co/e3LmKmwmf7
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) October 21, 2023
We don't have that problem here at Twitchy, by the way, because we don't pretend to be unbiased.
This your newspaper? pic.twitter.com/slW6ZXUHHc
— Ultra Grateful Calvin 🇺🇸🐶🏒 🎶 (@shoveitjack) October 21, 2023
The struggle is real, according to Farhi, as he tries to convince his readers of the painstaking effort newsrooms put into removing their personal bias.
Then he blows his cover entirely with this gem:
Even before his term as president, Donald Trump sparked another discussion of vocabulary: Does he propagate 'falsehoods,' 'misstatements' or just plain 'lies'?
LOL! They're working so hard to get it right, folks! You won't see a similar statement made about Joe Biden, who lies more than a comatose panda.
Stephen Miller (aka, redsteeze) was not going to let the attempt to bubblewrap the recent media screwups by WaPo and other outlets go unanswered.
Editors suddenly agreed with the "fury" of TwitterX users?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 21, 2023
Why did editors suddenly agree? Why was "detained" published in the first? How was this changed? Who changed it? Who allowed it and why is there no editors note?
Which editors let that happen in the first place? Who… pic.twitter.com/t8HtiDjnFC
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Yes, we understand the power of words and the difficulty in choosing our words wisely. It's not uncommon for Twitchy writers to ask an editor 'Can we say that?'
That's the problem. If the writers at WaPo and other outlets are engaged in such an epic fray for fair phrasing, how in God's green earth do you publish a piece that refers to children being taken hostage with a word as intentionally weak as 'detained'?
@farhip Who agreed to publish "the egregious choice of words"?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 21, 2023
Someone did. Someone signed off on Hamas "detaining" kids.
Does Democracy die in darkness or not?
While WaPo would like to gloss over the entire debacle as a systemic struggle of semantics, Miller's point is that an individual chose this terminology, and individual editors chose to let it pass.
Apparently, WaPo is choosing to let that die in darkness.
Some people did something.
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) October 21, 2023
Perhaps we'll never know who intentionally watered down Hamas atrocities.
WaPo, trying to figure out who labeled terrorist hostage-taking as 'detained'.
Before Stelter was fired by CNN he would have done an entire show about how this (repeated mistakes in one direction being noticed and dragged to the point of forcing correction) all reflects the health of journalism.
— Blame Big Government (@BlameBigGovt) October 21, 2023
Absolutely.
The point of editors is not to suddenly do their jobs after they publish because they get called out by readers.
They quickly agreed after people on X were mad about it.
— Base-Emitter Junction (@__classmethod__) October 21, 2023
Exactly.
The "we can't believe that happened, we'll do better next time" mistakes all go one way..
— Rorschach's Journal (@rorschachsjernl) October 21, 2023
Every. Single. Time.
— BigCat35 (@Miguelbigcat916) October 21, 2023
LOLOLOL! Journalists at WaPo trying to force 'detained' into a 'kidnapped hostage' hole.
I love that @redsteeze won't let this go.
— MrMikeD (@Mrmiked42) October 21, 2023
Force them into a corner https://t.co/1eV1nJMTxx
Someone has to put the 'fury' in TwitterX.
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