The massive social media companies have all employed “independent fact-checkers” to improve their public image. Democrats and their allied media outlets have lamented that too much “misinformation” is shared on their platforms. “Fact-checkers” flag questionable posts, and they get blocked or limited.
None of this happens when left-wing media outlets commit their own misinformation. Facebook, Google and X (formerly Twitter) aren’t going to punish those “reliable sources” when they are egregiously incorrect. Their freedom of reach is never in doubt.
On Oct. 17, the terrorist group Hamas claimed Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed hundreds of people. The headlines sounded like repeaters, not reporters.
The Associated Press: “Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hospital, health ministry says.”
The Reuters wire service: “Israeli air strike hits Gaza hospital, hundreds dead.”
CNN: “Israel hits hospital and school in Gaza as blockade cripples healthcare system.” Their first paragraph unspooled like this: “A school and a hospital in Gaza were among the civilian refuges lethally blasted during Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, as humanitarian concerns mount over ongoing deprivation of food, fuel and electricity to the isolated population.”
On TV, CNN’s Jake Tapper claimed in those initial moments after the explosion that there was “no reason to doubt” the Hamas claims. Almost every other national outlet repeated these claims, at least on social media.
The New York Times homepage declared, front and center: “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say.”
By the next morning, they all casually walked it back. The front page of the Times said, “Palestinians and Israelis Blame Each Other Ahead of Biden’s Arrival.” On Oct. 19, their front page asserted it “remains disputed,” but Biden “backed Israel’s contention that a Palestinian group” caused the explosion.
Biden’s National Security Council told reporters that a blast analysis suggests it was a ground explosion rather than an airstrike that hit the hospital, and that the extensive fire damage and scattered debris was consistent with an explosion starting from the ground level.
No one expects CNN or AP or Reuters — who all blamed Israel at the drop of their pens — to put their own “fact-checkers” on the case and explain how wrong they likely were. But the “prestige media” that lecture everyone else about being patsies for disinformation ought to be humbler and more apologetic about how they report on “mass casualty” events that have the potential to cause global unrest.
Instead, a Reuters Fact Check article from Oct. 19 shamelessly reported it is still in dispute: “The Palestinian Authority said an Israeli air strike on Oct. 17 killed hundreds of people at the Gaza hospital, while Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.”
Those “independent fact-checkers” aren’t flagging Hamas for disinformation, but they’re still focusing on Republicans. CNN’s Daniel Dale pounced: “DeSantis campaign falsely describes (Nikki) Haley’s comments on the people of Gaza.” The only recent check by Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post is “Nikki Haley misleads town hall audience on Chinese land acquisitions.”
The leftist media can’t admit when they’ve dreadfully botched a story. Look no further than Hunter Biden’s laptop. In this case, they didn’t warn of the “hallmarks of Hamas misinformation.” They looked like slack-jawed amateurs.
Then they just washed their hands of it. The “PBS NewsHour” arrogantly insisted “Biden’s claims did little to dampen the fury ripping through the region.” They demand everyone outside their “professional” sphere should be rigorously fact-checked and deplatformed for a mistake. It’s not surprising that Gallup found public confidence in the press is at an all-time low.
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Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
“It’s not surprising that Gallup found public confidence in the press is at an all-time low.”
90% of U.S. media is controlled by lying Democrats.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, some low intellect people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the Democrat Party can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.
It thus becomes vitally important for the Democrat Party to use all of its powers to repress the truth, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the “Democrat Party.”
The greatest lie is that the Israeli response should be proportional, denying the fact that when you compromise and reflect only the image of the Hamas devils, you have just traveled halfway down the road to your own hell. Just what would the world be like today if the USA listened to the compromising woke media 5th columnists of their day, and only responded to Imperial Japan and Germany to the level of those who tried to destroy America and Jews. What if when the Germans saw the war was lost, we allowed the Nazi’s and Jap Imperialist to remain in power to continue to rule over their people who today would be Images of Hamas, not the image of the God of Creation, but the God of Destruction. American leadership, wise its day left as many alive or in power of the Imperialistic Bonzi treed terrorists and Nattering Nabobs of Nazism, as there were snakes in Ireland at the time. You will find not even fossils of snakes in Ireland, or Nazi’s left in Germany, nor Imperialistic Bonzi Bestiality rapists of Nanking or Hawaii, left in Japan whose people, thanks to the Americans, have been fundamentally changed into people of production to the benefit of mankind. Just what has Hamas done to benefit mankind, let alone even the success of their own people. Are they better off than 70 years ago under the Nazi aligned Grand Mufti of Palestine? The same should apply to Hamas that keeps their swords to the throats and their feet upon the necks of their very own people.
Reliable, and media, go as well together as ‘government Intelligence…
The first question that media companies need to ask is who benefits from the bombing of innocent people in Hamas area hospitals. Then report appropriately. The fake reporting of this bombing that most probably was Hamas aimed, not misfired did not benefit the Iraeli’s in any way, so just who reports in favor of Hamas’s prpaganda, and who do they really represent? In wars you are either with us or against us, there is no middle ground.
In the words of the disgraceful, disgusting Democrats, “Never let crises go to waste” always twist it around to be used against your opponent.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, some low intellect people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the Democrat Party can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.
It thus becomes vitally important for the Democrat Party to use all of its powers to repress the truth, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the “Democrat Party.”
There are Democrats in all walks of life, different names but same character.
AND note, it was only the PARKING LOT that got hit, not the hospital itself.
War is war. **** happens but it’s real people we’re talking about. Keep entrenched in your conversation’s phrases like ” peace talks”, “cease fire”, “meetings about peaceful agreements”, ” what has to happen for us to stop shooting at each other”. What’s happening can’t keep going on. Pray for peace.