Proof that the media is biased in favor of a terrorist group and against Jews, illustrated. ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Proof that the media is biased in favor of a terrorist group and against Jews, illustrated.

Here are two sentences from a Washington Post article published today.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has destroyed much of the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 45,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which says that thousands of bodies remain uncounted beneath the rubble and that women and children account for two-thirds of the dead.

Netanyahu said Thursday, without providing evidence, that the Israel Defense Forces had killed “close to 20,000” Hamas fighters.

They are not remarkable - fundamentally similar descriptions have been published for the past 14 months by much of the mainstream media.

They prove how biased the media is towards terrorists.

First of all, the first paragraph is not true. The 45,000 number, the thousands under the rubble and the two-thirds women and children claims come from Hamas, not the health ministry. The health ministry has spent the war trying to use any methods possible to square their total death numbers with Hamas' claims, but their own count from hospitals have consistently been thousands lower than Hamas numbers. Not only that but the health ministry's latest breakdown shows that of the casualties they count - including from sketchy sources - about half are women and children, not two thirds.

Secondly, the phrasing of the two paragraphs is different. The Hamas statistics stated first, as truth, and then confirmed by the health ministry. Israel's statistics are stated as a mere claim without any evidence.

If the first sentence had been written in exactly the same way as the second and was factual, this is what it would look like:

Hamas says, without providing evidence, that Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,000 people. The militant group also claims, without providing evidence, that thousands of bodies remain uncounted beneath the rubble and that women and children account for two-thirds of the dead, a claim that contradicts the Gaza Health Ministry's own statistics..

Here are the edits, illustrated:

But even this isn't the whole story.

Hamas has a history of lying as well as strong motivation to continue to lie because they recognize that the cognitive war is no less important than the kinetic war. Part of Sinwar's calculations of mounting the October 7 attack was that Israel would accept a cease fire from world pressure after massive civilian casualties, meaning that Hamas has every incentive to seek and inflate civilian deaths. They have no accountability, no methodology, and their statistics have been proven wrong again and again. The media knows this because they refuse to report on Hamas' and the health ministry's more outlandish lies, like the claim that Israel has weapons to vaporize Gazans.

Israel, on the other hand, has checks and balances, layers of people to check facts carefully before making public statements. It has a huge disincentive to lie because - unlike with Hamas -the Israeli and world media would rip it apart if it is found to have said something inaccurate. Moreover, Israel has a professional army that would not make up numbers. Israel's estimates of militants killed from previous Gaza wars were also at odds with those of Hamas - but months or years after the wars, Hamas admitted that IDF estimates were correct.

To treat the IDF and a murderous terror group equally is itself bias in favor of terrorists.

Fair journalists would inform their readers of the history of Hamas lies and Israel's claims being far more accurate. Only then can readers compare the competing narratives. "Even-handedness" is not accuracy nor is it truth.

But the Washington Post, as well as most other mainstream media, isn't even reaching that low bar of being even-handed. As this one paragraph and many like it prove, they are pro-Hamas.

That should frighten every consumer of news.