Wednesday, September 1, 2010

8/31/10: HuffPost spits in eyes of murdered Israelis (again), shills for Hamas (again); cyber-jihadis unleash hate-fest (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")

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One week ago, we documented here how HuffPost --- which showers enduring, in-depth attention to supposed "victims" of Israeli wrongdoing --- spit in the eye of a beloved IDF officer that had been assassinated by Lebanon. It did this by quickly removed the story of the cross-border firefight between Lebanon and Israel once it became clear that Israel was not at fault, as Lebanon had alleged. In its place, HuffPost decided to publish, and leave published for an entire week straight, the story of an injured elephant... and Churchill's belief in UFOs.

We thought it'd be hard for HuffPost to top that act of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic bias.

We didn't have long to wait.

On August 31, 2010, HuffPost demonstrated through five acts its pathological anti-Israel, anti-Semitic bias, and its willingness to be a prime facilitator of the global cyber-jihad.
(1) 2:58pm: HuffPost publishes --- on its front page --- an "interview" with Hamas's top propagandist, by one of its most biased correspondents.

(2) 3:45pm: HuffPost publishes --- deep on a secondary page --- the story of Hamas bragging about murdering 4 Israeli Jews, including a pregnant woman.

(3) 6:10pm: HuffPost finally, briefly promotes the Hamas murder story to its front page, but with egregiously-biased picture, instead of others that tell the real story.

(4) In violation of its own rules, HuffPost reviews, approves and decides to publish comments by cyber-jihadis containing hate and justification of murder of these Jews.

(5) 4:58pm: HuffPost publishes --- on its front page --- a PR blog claiming U.S. could learn "tolerance" from Lebanon --- less than one month after it assassinated a beloved Israeli officer, and threatened more violence against Jews.

As you read through this report, keep in mind that HuffPost:

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(1) 2:58pm: HuffPost publishes --- on its front page --- an "interview" with Hamas's chief propagandist, by one of its most biased correspondents.

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As our friends at Huffington Post Monitor (formerly Brothers of Judea) have documented repeatedly in recent months, Sharmain Narwani is one of HuffPost's most ardent anti-Israel propagandists and apologists for Islamist terror. Today, HuffPost decided to run --- on its front page --- an "interview" she conducted with Hamas's chief propagandist that's so biased, it would be better suited to Hamas's website. An excerpt (emphasis added):
Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, is an unassuming man who sauntered into our interview room unattended and chatted with me in English while we awaited his staff. The young father of seven -- three daughters and four sons, in that order -- is grounded, smart and energetic.

We met at 1:00 a.m. when I was fading fast, and he was just getting started. There was a lot of ground to cover, but more than anything I wanted to leave the interview knowing what Hamas stood for. The resistance group, I felt, had left people confused in recent years. [Ed.: No, it's left people dead and terrified in recent years, just as it did two hours after your "interview" was published, Ms. Narwani.] By moderating their stances and altering their language to accommodate changing realities in the Middle East, Hamas had become a bit blurry at the edges.

Ah, the "resistance group" meme. Not a terror group. Not a savage gang that murders members of its rival gang, Fatah, and shoots Muslim civilians in the street who are suspected of being Israeli informants.
As if that weren't insulting enough, HuffPost decided to run the following question by Narwani:
"Q) Why, in your view, does the West not engage directly with Hamas and make you a partner to the solution? Surely the only path to a comprehensive peace is a solution agreed upon by all major parties to a conflict?"
Brilliant. Just think of all the bloodshed that could have been spared in the 20th century alone, had we taken this holistic approach For instance, instead of fighting Hitler with those ugly weapons of war, why didn't we "engage directly" with him, and make him "a partner to the solution"? After all, Hitler was a "major party" to the deaths of oh, around 30 million people which, ironically, he called "the final solution."

Well, Ms. Narwani, in case you've been living in a cave on a remote island for the last 25 years, the rest of this blog might give you a little indication of why your approach is f*cking insane.


HuffPost, however, has no excuse. Its globe-trotting
"fearless" leader, and its crack team of 53 "editors" know the truth --- but chose to run this insane, soft-soap PR "interview" anyway.



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(2) 3:45pm: HuffPost publishes --- deep on a secondary page --- the story of Hamas bragging about murdering 4 Israeli Jews, including a pregnant woman.

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Here's the story of Hamas's latest depravity:
4 Israelis Killed In West Bank; Hamas Claims Responsibility
Excerpt:
Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli car in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility. One of the victims was pregnant [...]

About 3,000 people joined a rally in Gaza to celebrate the attack. Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida was among them and told The Associated Press: "The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron."
We were unable to get a screencap of how deep on the "World" page HuffPost positioned this story at the time, because we were
busy copying some of the shocking, hate-filled comments from cyber-jihadis that HuffPost was deciding to publish on the thread (see Section 4).

Fortunately, our friends at Huffington Post Monitor captured what we didn't. We let HPM's Matt & Zach take it from here:
As with all Internet newspapers, which stories get top billing on a site is extremely important. Let's take a look at where the HP placed the recent terror attack story in their "World" section (it goes without saying it's way down on the home page).


Yes, that's right. Quite a ways down, below such important stories as "Spain Breaks Up Male Prostitute Gang" and "Girl Throws Puppies Into River". Nope, no bias here, why do you ask?

And note the irony that HuffPost decided to place the story of Hamas murdering four Israeli Jews below Narwani's softball interview with Hamas's chief propagandist. No bias here, indeed.



HuffPost's anti-Semitic double-standards on guilt by association


Further irony: As we've documented, HuffPost has been engaged in a "journalistic jihad" against the Tea Party, in part because of what it alleges is its racism. On what does it base that allegation? One attendee at one event was filmed making a racially inflammatory comment. That was all HuffPost needed to label, in its story headline, the entire organization as "racist."
Yet when we have 3,000 Palestinian Muslims erupting in glee, and celebrating the murder of four Israeli civilians, why, that merits no mention in the headline... at least to HuffPost.

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Returning now to HuffPost's insulting placement of the story, apparently a sympathetic HuffPost moderator decided to publish this complaint from "Barry Courage," at 4:29pm:


So what kinds of crap stories was "BarryCourage" referring to, that HuffPost decided were more important to place on its front page, than this one? Would you believe: an NFL freak's hair that's insured for $1 million? Hollywood starlets' breasts, Morning Joe gossip, and the secret lives of the Obama kids?


Now, if these four Jewish civilians were instead, say, oh... martyrdom-seeking, Hamas-supporting terrorists disguised as "peace activists" who were killed after they attacked and attempted to murder Israeli soldiers... well, HuffPost's top editors would scream, "Stop the presses... new lead!!!," as they did in the case of the "Flotilla of Terror":


But alas, these four were only Jews, and as such, they don't merit front-page, top-line attention --- at least at HuffPost.


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(3) 6:10pm: HuffPost finally, briefly promotes the Hamas murder story to its front page, with egregiously-biased picture, instead of others that tell the real story.


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At 6:10pm, HuffPost finally decided to move this story to its front page.
But note the picture it chose to run with it... of a man standing next to a barrier wall, with barbed wire atop it. Think that might have anything to do with rallying to Hamas's justification for murdering these four Jews?



Here's the story page that headline led to. Note that the picture of the bullet-riddled car that HuffPost chose to run on this story page --- but left off of its headline:

As an aside, here's how The Christian Science Monitor ran the story --- showing Gaza Muslims erupting in joy and celebrations over this murder:


How could a blog that's so much smaller than HuffPost access such a revealing photo, from Reuters? Does this mean that the
crack team of 53 "editors" that operate HuffPost, the most powerful, #1 most-read blog in the world, don't have access to Reuters? Really? No. In fact, HuffPost frequently uses Reuters media. The fact is that HuffPost chose to ignore these pictures. It decided instead to run the picture of the security wall that Israel put up, which Hamas has been complaining about.
Update here: Sometime late on 8/31 or early on 9/1, HuffPost removed the story from its front page, and condemned it back to its World page. Apparently, HuffPost did this to make room on its front page for stories that it judged were of far greater global importance, including a fistfight among women soccer players; a new resort for men and their virtual girlfriends; and its original reporting on a man who gave up a scheme to dance for his rent.

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(4) In violation of its own rules, HuffPost reviews, approves and decides to publish comments by cyber-jihadis containing hate and justification of murder of these Jews.


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HuffPost's "Comment Policy" claims that it prohibits, and will not publish user comments containing urgings or celebrations of people's deaths, anti-Semitism, or ethnic slurs. Right.

As you review the following user comments, which
HuffPost admits only appeared after it reviewed, approved, and decided to publish them, ask yourself: Are you looking at an American-owned and operated website --- or one that caters to radical Islamist propagandists? (Note: An estimated 135,000 of HuffPost's monthly visitors originate from Iran and Pakistan; see Section 4.3 here.)

For example, in the screencap at right, at 4:52pm there were 18 comments pending HuffPost's review, and decision as to whether or not to publish them.

The following is a sampling of the comments that HuffPost decided were appropriate to publish from the cyber-jihadis who flock to the site, and which it enables and even protects, while banning others who object (examples 1, 2, 3). Note that users with more than 20 "fans" are bolded, indicating that (a) they have been users for some time, and (b) they are not the hit-and-run "trolls" that Ms. Huffington likes to blame for "offensive comments" that "accidentally slipped through":

Canadian on the border
6 Fans

isreal finally getting a taste of
its own medicine
Permalink




HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Paul Huffman
41 Fans

Why are Israelis in the West Bank to begin with? Illegality begets illegality...
Permalink


Bold
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Emilio Medina

10 Fans
Hamas 4. Israel 1200+.
Permalink


Ric NYC
43 Fans
"President Barack Obama hopes to forge a peace agreement within one year."...
but he will understand if all the Palestinians are killed by Israel...

Hillary agrees! [...]
Permalink



JoePenn
15 Fans

Ought to read: "Four illegal occupying Israeli settlers [...]
were gunned down by israeli intel forces, a move done dozens of times before to push back peace (sic) talks. And it will work again."
Permalink



Gerontion
9 Fans

[...] Will the Israeli apologists belatedly deplore the slaughter of innocents in the Cast Lead blitzkrieg - without equivocation? [...]

Permalink



Grim Al
279 Fans

Looks like this was taken right out of Israel's playbook.

Permalink



italianwine
79 Fans

In Hebron extremist Jewish settlers have taken over the old city and harass Palestinians with impunity EVERYDAY, thanks to the protection of the IDF. Israel has on the other side no problem to have killed during the last months many Palestinians, stealing their land, destroying their houses, burning their land and trees, taking shots at them, beating them up, and taunting them at every turn. [...]
Israel is to blame for this, they are the illegal occupiers
Permalink



HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Paul Huffman

41 Fans

The Israeli settlers are failed people living on welfare(provided by the US) who think a 2,000 year old book of fables is the same as a deed to a home.

Permalink



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(5) 4:58pm: HuffPost publishes --- on its front page --- a PR blog claiming the U.S. could learn "tolerance" from Lebanon, less than one month after Lebanon assassinated a beloved Israeli officer, and threatened more violence against Jews.

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Barely an hour after publishing the story of the Israeli Jews that Hamas
murdered (3:45pm), HuffPost decided to publish on its front page an article by one of its official bloggers, David Samuel, entitled:
What Lebanon Can Teach the U.S. About Religious Tolerance

Keep in mind that less than a month earlier, as we documented here, the following:
  • The fact that Lebanon assassinated Lt. Col. Dov Harari, a highly-decorated, beloved IDF officer, in a cross-border firefight that it instigated --- then threatened more violence against Israeli Jews.
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  • The fact that although HuffPost published this story on its front page when it appeared that the firefight was caused by Israel, when it became clear that Israel was the victim of Lebanese aggression and murder, it quickly moved the story to its "World" page, beneath the story of a parasailing donkey --- then removed it altogether. In its place, HuffPost decided that such crucially-important stories such as an elephant with an injured foot... should be left up for an entire week straight.

  • The fact that in violation of U.N. resolutions, Lebanon has been allowing Hezbollah to build up a massive arsenal of advanced weaponry, which it is threatening to use to exterminate Jews.

Yet HuffPost decided that this was an appropriate story to publish on its front page, while the bodies of the four murdered Israeli Jews were still warm, and Palestinian Muslims were celebrating.


Note: See updates to this article here.


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ACTION ITEMS

Insofar as holding HuffPost to account, be advised --- Arianna Huffington, its Editor-In-Chief, has all but pronounced herself immune to criticism:
"[Huffington] is offended and bewildered by the suggestion that other news outlets think she's getting a free ride. She sees herself as the future of journalism, not the end of it."
- Time interview, May 19, 2009

She's also recently demonstrated that she doesn't react well to being publicly exposed for her egregious hypocrisy and misrepresentations.

If, however, you're really determined to make your voice known to
HuffPost's senior management, here is where to write (politely, please).

And if you're really daring, forward
this article along to others who support Israel and Jews. Because given HuffPost's long, long history of inciting and tolerating anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred, and acting as a PR tool for militant Islamists, one thing is absolutely clear: it will not change until and unless it decides it is in its interest to do so --- and not a moment before.
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