What credible media organization would trust Hamas for news sourcing? The answer should be none.
For those who have been asleep since Oct. 7, Hamas is the terrorist organization responsible for murdering over 1,400 people in a terrorist rampage in Israel and kidnapping 210 additional victims. Hamas’ stated mission is to obliterate Israel.
Satellite images and other data prove that Hamas uses Gaza hospitals, mosques, schools and other civilian areas as command centers, rocket launching sites and storage for war supplies.
In addition to killing and raping babies, children, pregnant women, and elderly people, Hamas manufactures facts. Hamas controls and restricts the press and is legendary for pushing out fake news, which their allies in social media have long spun out as factual. For example, a Hamas spokesperson denied in an earlier interview with NPR that they slaughtered 260 people at the Israeli music concert that was underway when this rampage began. Many of the atrocities that took place at the music festival were captured on camera phones by the young attendees.
All of this makes it even more astonishing that mainstream news outlets, both here and abroad, are increasingly complicit in treating Hamas like they are a legitimate news source and spreading their lies without doing appropriate due diligence or an investigation.
Hamas’ false claim of a “horrific massacre” after an Israel air strike decimated a hospital was immediately treated as a fact by many mainstream media organizations even though the Israeli government immediately denied this claim.
The New York Times irresponsibly led the way, publishing news of an explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, blaming an Israeli airstrike as the cause leaving at least 500 dead. The New York Times’ reporting gave credence to the Hamas claim that the blast was caused by an Israeli attack. And, they weren’t alone as others like the BBC, Reuters and The Associated Press followed suit giving Hamas’ false facts prominent attention.
U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed that Palestinian militants fired the rocket that caused the explosion, not Israel. And, the rocket didn’t demolish the hospital. Only a part of the rocket landed at a nearby parking lot. Incidentally, this is not the first time Hamas’ rockets have killed their own citizens. The IDF reports that one-fifth of the rockets fired by Hamas to date have been misfired landing inside Gaza and killing their own civilians. Hamas’ leaders don’t seem to care.
And, while many others did not take accountability, it took The New York Times five days to issue a mea culpa and explain that they “relied too heavily on claims” made by the Hamas terrorists while Israel had denied responsibility for the blast. In the editor’s note attempting to clean up the mess, the Times conceded that they “did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified” and left readers with “an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.”
By then, it was too late. The damage was done as the reporting was treated by the fact by many Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and further spurred Jew hatred globally as furious international protests followed.
For many, the incident was a source of confirmation bias. Take, for example, far-left squad members Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar, who wasted no time in blaming Israel for killing 500 people at the hospital and calling it a war crime, without remorse. Meanwhile, Jew hatred has spilled out to our streets where the Anti-Defamation League has reported a surge in antisemitic incidents.
If there is a silver lining here, it’s this: the majority of Americans, on both sides of the aisle, know better. Most Americans clearly understand that Hamas is the real threat to America’s interests.
Recent polling from the Economist/YouGov Poll, demonstrates that America’s sympathies overwhelmingly lie with the Israelis and that they understand how important it is to our Middle East interests to support this nation-state in its war with terrorism.
Seven in ten Americans, including 81% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats, support providing aid to Israel. By about the same bipartisan margin, Americans feel that protecting Israel is an important aspect of American public policy.
The polling shows that Americans understand its shared values and Israel’s commitment to democracy. Seventy-three percent of Americans view Israel as friendly or an ally as opposed to 9% who see them as unfriendly or the enemy. Compare that with how Americans feel about how they perceive Palestine and Iran: 12% and 6% think of them as friendly or allies, respectively.
We should also demand that news organizations rid themselves of so-called journalists who have a clear conflict of interest. For example, The New York Times re-hired Soliman Hijjy, a freelance photographer in Gaza to cover the conflict. Hijjy has praised Adolf Hitler’s greatness and invoked him on numerous occasions.
Will media organizations have journalistic integrity as this war wages on? Time will tell. Hopefully, this will be a teachable moment for credible news organizations to do the hard work of journalism and make sure they prevent the dissemination of false information particularly as it flows into social media’s cesspool.
Whether it’s firing rockets or news reporting, ready, aim and fire is a better sequence than fire, ready, and aim.
Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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