6/2/10: HuffPost's total blackout of "the rest of the story" regarding the "Peace Flotilla"

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BREAKING: See StandWithUs's FLOTILLA FACTS. Press release here.

Also see CAMERA's The Gaza Flotilla: Falsehoods and Facts.

Please review these items, and forward them on to the media, and everyone you think wants to know and spread the truth!!!

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Summary: Anti-Semitism in journalism takes the form of acts of commission, and acts of omission. As has been meticulously documented here at HUFF-WATCH, the endemic anti-Semitic bias at HuffPost --- the #1 blog in the world, and now a top ten U.S. "news" site --- takes both forms.

In this instance, HuffPost accepted and broadcast to the world, without criticism or analysis, depictions of the "peace flotilla" that made Israel's military look like barbarians. Yet when video proof, eyewitness accounts, and research by top analysts emerged that demonstrated this entire event was staged by, and in conjunction with groups that have documented ties to Islamist terror, HuffPost refused to even acknowledge the existence of anything that showed the "inconvenient truth" of its earlier "reporting." This article shows, in irrefutable screencaps, what HuffPost posted on its front page, from top to bottom --- which constituted a total "blackout" of this new information.

Is this strange behavior for a "news" website that claims to be nonpartisan, and that what makes it different and better than its rivals is that it recognizes "the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned"? To the contrary, as documented here at HUFF-WATCH, this is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of "blackouts" on information that exonerates or gives credit to Israel, after it has been maliciously libeled and smeared (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

If, after reading this article, you become as outraged and concerned as we are about HuffPost's blatant anti-Semitic bias, and would like to make your voice known to its management (politely, please), here's how.

Starting on May 31, HuffPost has been featuring breathless, 144-pt splash headlines in red capital letters, condemning Israel. A sample, from June 1 at 2:30pm:


From May 31 at 6:30pm:


But late in the evening of June 1, the Israel story all but disappeared from HuffPost. It was replaced by the stand-by red meat that HuffPost tosses out on a regular basis, to the foaming-at-the-mouth leftists it attracts: an inflammatory, decontextualized splash headline about Sarah Palin:


The Palin story was published at 1:21pm... meaning that it was positioned high atop HuffPost's page for the remainder of the day. And as you can see, beneath that red meat, is a story about Attorney General Eric Holder. Which would lead a reasonable observer to ask...

Wait... what happened to the Israel-as-a-monster story? Inconvenient facts emerged.

What happened? Did the Israel story just fade away? As the old Hertz commercials said, "Not exactly."

What happened is that shocking facts emerged in "inconvenient" news sources and prominent conservative blogs that put the events off the coast of Israel into context that is directly at odds with HuffPost's "always-bash-Israel" model.

So what, exactly, is HuffPost refusing to publish --- or even acknowledge the existence of? Oh, just little things, such as:

• The fact that the "peace" group that organized this "relief flotilla" is a Hamas front group that has been designated a terrorist organization by both the UN and the U.S. State Department. It was later discovered that a number of those on the ships have direct linkages to al Qaeda and Hamas.
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• The fact that these "peace" activists were captured ON VIDEO chanting death wishes to Jews and Israel, upon their departure from Turkey --- long before any Israeli commandos boarded their ships.
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• The fact that Israel repeatedly offered these "peace" activists the ability to dock at another port, where it could inspect all the cargo, and deliver it to Gaza... an offer that was flatly rejected.
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• The fact that these "peace" activists were captured ON VIDEO armed with knives, swords, metal pipes and marble-firing slingshots; more emerged later that they were also armed with bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles, etc.
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• The fact that these "peace" activists were captured ON VIDEO attempting to murder IDF soldiers on the deck of their ship.
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• The fact that these "peace" activists refused to request that Hamas let them visit with Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier it has been holding captive for four years without letting the UN or the Red Cross have access to him (an illegal act). Shalit's grieving parents asked these "peace" activists --- these "humanitarians" --- to do this... to no avail. It seems their sympathy only can be directed at the false food shortages in Gaza.
  

Here are some of the many news and blog sources that documented all of the above, and far more, on May 31 and June 1 --- which at least some of HuffPost's crack team of 53 "editors" were undoubtedly aware of:

This is by no means a comprehensive list. It is only enough to give the honest observer a starting point from which to begin understanding what information became public, where, and when. And given HuffPost's willingness to use egregiously anti-Semitic "news" sources, including the terrorist-friendly, notorious al Jazeera (1, 2, 3), its omission in this regard becomes eve more apparent.

A brutal ambush at sea YNet News, 5/31

Violence and Humanitarian Aid, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, 6/1
A blockbuster expose' on the reality of the terrorist groups behind the "peace flotilla."

Conservative blogs:

So A Bunch Of Stoners, Some Hamas Thugs, And Two Well-Armed Antisemites Float Into A Blockade… by Omri Ceren, MereRhetoric, 5/31

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets a chance to put its pants on, by Paul Mirengoff, PowerlineBlog, 5/31

Turkish Jihadists Attack Israel, by Phylis Chesler, FrontPageMag, 6/1

Arrested Gaza Flotilla “Peace Activists” Are Al-Qaeda & Muslim Brotherhood Members; Have Record of Radicalism, by Jim Hoft, GatewayPundit, 6/1 (more here)

Israel, the Truth and the Asymmetric Warfare Of Embedded Journalism, by Joel Pollack, BigJournalism, 6/1

Flotillas and Falsehoods, by Mona Charon, NationalReviewOnline, 6/1

CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America):

Main link to VIDEOS

UPDATED: Radical, Pro-Hamas "Flotilla" Seeks Media Win (5/31)

UPDATED: In Aftermath of Gaza Flotilla Violence, Increase in Media Attention Yields Increase in Media Failures (5/31)

Israel’s right to blockade Gaza and to interdict shipping (5/31)

Latest Video Clips -- Gaza Flotilla Incident (6/1)

(Above: A "peace" activist --- who is actually a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the spawning ground of al Qaeda and Hamas --- displaying his "peaceful" dagger, after he and his fellow jihadis wrote their wills, while preparing for "martyrdom" on the "peace flotilla.")

So what "news" stories did HuffPost decide are more important than these facts, to publish on its front page? See this "top-to-bottom" documentation for the answer.

The narrative of the "Peace Flotilla" story --- as written by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and mindlessly echoed, globally, by HuffPost --- is coming apart faster than a certain ex-president's zipper on dollar night at a strip bar.

So what types of stories do you think HuffPost chose to devote its front page to covering, on the evening of June 1, instead of giving simple acknowledgment of these inconvenient facts? Would you believe...

• A blogger's accusation that a (Republican) Congressman is gay?
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• A freakish singer's interview on Larry King?
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• iPad magic tricks?
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• A fighter who ripped out the heart of his sparring partner, then cooked and ate it?

You may think we're kidding ---- nope. And that's just for starters. Immediately beneath the Sarah Palin splash headline on the evening of June 1, we find the following --- in sequence --- from the top of HuffPost's front page to the bottom. (click to enlarge each image)

After these screens, don't miss the conclusion of this article, documenting the fact that this anti-Semitic act of omission is far from an isolated incident at HuffPost.

Couldn't HuffPost have published some of this information on its "World" page?

Well, of course it could have done this. But that might have meant that it would have to bump its obsessive coverage of a chain-smoking Indonesian toddler, which it's only been running for a week now.


To HuffPost, this is clearly a far more important story to prominently feature, around-the-clock, than to post anything that in any way exonerates Israel, or defends it against the libelous smears that have been hurled against it.

UPDATE, June 7: HuffPost is still right on top of the chain-smoking baby story. And Portugal's first gay marriage. And a rock band canceling a concert in Israel. But telling "the rest of the story" about the "peace flotilla"? Not at all...

Was this an accidental oversight, or an isolated incident? To the contrary, it's part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of anti-Semitic acts of omission

In reality, what you have witnessed above is part of HuffPost's continuing betrayal of the high-minded, nonpartisan journalistic principles which it publicly claims it holds dear. As HUFF-WATCH has documented time and again, HuffPost perpetrates these acts of omission by making the conscious decision to black out any coverage of facts and stories that (a) either put Israel or Jews in a favorable light, or (b) exonerate either, after it has launched a vicious journalistic assault on them. Examples:

3/7/10: HuffPost's total blackout of Israel's heroic relief efforts in Haiti
When Israel is accused of some wrongdoing, it's a good bet that HuffPost will not only feature the story prominently, it may well manipulate the headline to make it even more incendiary or misleading. Or, it will generate a headline that accuses Israel or Jews of something, on a false or misleading basis. So what do you think HuffPost did when Israel accomplished something so extraordinarily positive that it earned the admiring coverage of the world media (including those that HuffPost routinely relies upon for Middle East news)? This special report documents the fact that HuffPost completely ignored the story... day after day, week after week --- while at the same time, prominently promoting its standard fare of Israel-bashing, Islamist-sympathizing, and nonsensical "news" stories.

HuffPost's ongoing blackout of credible rebuttals to the anti-Israel stories it publishes
Since the egregiously-biased Goldstone Report was published, HuffPost has routinely published "news" stories that support it, on its front page. Yet when one source after another produced detailed rebuttals to these libels, HuffPost has chosen either to not publish them --- or, in a few token cases, "buried" them in positions well away from the its readers' immediate focus. This article also documents HuffPost's willingness to put anti-Israel propaganda by Human Rights Watch on its front page --- yet no stories documenting this organization's anti-Semitism and corruption, including even a scathing indictment of it by its founder.

9/24/09: HuffPost's blackout of Netanyahu's blockbuster speech at the U.N.
On September 23, there were two notable speeches at the U.N. Israeli PM Netanyahu gave a passionate, fact-based, point-by-point rebuttal to the most egregious libels to which the State of Israel, its military, and the Jewish people in general, have been subjected in recent years. Libyan dictator and madman Moammar Gaddafi gave a 95-minute rant. Guess which speech HuffPost put near the top of its front page, and asked whether it contained "valid points" --- and which it refused to even acknowledge the existence of? Need you ask?

4/8/09: One-sided coverage of "Outlandish Statements" from the Middle East
When a member of the Israeli government makes controversial statements, it makes the front page of HuffPost. When Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah or any other militant Islamist group makes statements that urge and justify the mass murder of Jews, HuffPost either doesn't report them, or at a minimum, only does so with very little fanfare.

More: Archvie of anti-Israel, ant-Semitic bias, libels and hate at HuffPost

Here's how to make your voice known to HuffPost

If you are as concerned as we are about HuffPost's blatant anti-Semitic bias, and would like to make your voice known to its management (politely, please), here's how.


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Click here to see updates to this story:

UPDATE, June 2, 11:30a: HuffPost resumes its breathless, top-line smearing of Israel

UPDATE, June 3, 10:30a: HuffPost goes to the mat to insulate Obama from his radical leftist and radical Islamist critics, with screaming headline: "White House: We Warned Israel"

UPDATE, June 3, 4:00p: HuffPost maintains blackout, but posts new story near top of page that is... not quite the full story

UPDATE, June 3, 4:20pm: HuffPost fills front page space with... slam on Sarah Palin for affiliation with "Nixon's Jew Counter(!?)"

UPDATE, June 4, 12:50pm: HuffPost, in an act of Über-Chutzpah, calls out Glenn Beck for "lying" about coverage of IDF footage of assault by flotilla "humanitarians"

UPDATE, June 4, 1:10pm: Instead of covering the unraveling of the "Peace Flotilla" narrative, it posts a story about... Jews' genetics

UPDATE, June 6, 11:20 am: One of HuffPost's Washington, DC "reporters" regurgitates the cyber-jihadis' libels against Israel, and Jews

6/7/10: Holocaust refugees = militant Islamists? Apparently to HuffPost, YES

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