MAR 29, 2024 JLM 68°F 10:36 AM 03:36 AM EST
The Media in the 2021 Gaza War: The New York Times’ Journalistic Malpractice

During the 2021 Gaza War, the New York Times published ten articles and features from Gaza written and photographed by local Gazan stringers, photographers, and “fixers.” Since Gaza is controlled by Hamas, no one can report on or photograph Hamas rocket launchers located in civilian neighborhoods or the extensive and expensive Hamas tunnels with weaponry stored inside.

A respected Arab reporter, who reported on Gaza for decades, explained, “They will report what Hamas wants them to write; photograph the pictures Hamas seeks. They cannot write or film anything that will hurt Hamas’ image….I blame the news producers sitting in London or New York assigning stories when they know the fixers’ restrictions.” Thus, they have the main, direct responsibility for the misrepresentation of the war.

On June 24, 2021, the New York Times released a 14-minute investigative video entitled “Gaza’s Deadly Night.” Any Gaza war narrative must deal with Hamas’ underground tunnels – used to move weaponry and personnel – which were the target of Israel’s precision bombing of the Wahda Street area in Gaza City. Yet the video only included a 10-second clip of armed men moving through a narrow tunnel, from a clip filmed by Reuters in 2014.

On June 5, Qatar’s Al Jazeera and Iran’s Mehr News broadcast a video showing Hamas’ elaborate tunnels filled with rockets, guns, missiles, artillery shells, storage areas, and even a command center. But there was no hint of these in the New York Times’ mega-production.

The Times’ video and articles build the case that the collapse of the Gaza apartments on Wahda Street “was a possible war crime.” But it ignores the statement of survivor Azzam Al-Kollek, who described the collapse of his three-story building to the Wall Street Journal. He said engineers who visited the site told him the building dropped some 40 feet below street level as it fell into an underground void – a Hamas tunnel.

With its coverage of the May 2021 Gaza War, the New York Times has honestly earned its reputation as the most prejudiced and biased critic of Israel in mainstream North American media.

On May 10, 2021, the Hamas terrorist organization launched a rocket attack on Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem. In the ensuing days, Hamas fired 4,300 rockets at Israeli civilian targets. Israel responded with air force attacks on Hamas’ rocket launchers, weapons manufacturing facilities, leadership, and a massive tunnel system (“the Metro”) consisting of underground bunkers, command centers, arms depots, and miles of passageways for the movement of fighters and offensive weaponry.

President Joe Biden defended Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks on May 12, 2021. “Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory,” Biden said at the White House.1

Hamas defenders and critics of Israel took their accusations against Israel to the United Nations, social media, and news publications. However, most of the charges against Israel were patently false, unsubstantiated, and malicious, based on invented international law.

One publication, the prestigious New York Times, exemplifies the widespread mendacity, whose coverage bordered on libel, misrepresentation, fabrication, and anti-Israel poison.

In the course of the war, the Times published ten articles and features from Gaza. [See Appendix]. Who wrote them? It appears that the correspondents with bylines on these stories may never have stepped foot in Gaza during the recent period but filed their reports from New York, Jerusalem, London, Cairo, and even Canada. Almost all articles were written and photographed by local Gazan stringers, photographers, and “fixers.” The Times’ producers, editors, and correspondents relied on their reports and photographs from inside Gaza.

Indeed, most international news agencies depend on these Gazans today. Asked if he would trust Gazan fixers today, a respected Arab reporter who reported on Gaza for decades, responded, “Never.” He continued, “They will report what Hamas wants them to write; photograph the pictures Hamas seeks. They cannot write or film anything that will hurt Hamas’ image. But I don’t blame the fixers,” he continued. “I blame the news producers sitting in London or New York assigning stories when they know the fixers’ restrictions.”

The conclusion is clear: No one in Gaza today can report on or photograph Hamas rocket launchers located in civilian neighborhoods or the extensive and expensive Hamas tunnels systems or show the weaponry stored inside the “Metro.”

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