Wednesday, May 4, 2011

HuffPost as the Palestinians' PR spin machine: Bin Laden takedown edition

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Do the Palestinians pay Arianna Huffington to act as their public relations spin machine?

Or does she just voluntarily act in this capacity?
In either case, America's takedown of Osama bin Laden provides us with yet another example of the extraordinary lengths to which HuffPost will go to help make the Islamist gangs that rule Gaza and the West Bank look civilized --- and prevent the public from glimpsing their bloodthirsty, blood-drenched, double-talking reality.

In this case, HuffPost gave top-line coverage to presenting the leaders of the Palestinian terror gangs as spit-shined men of peace. Yet it completely ignored the fact that both of their gangs are condemning the takedown of Bin Laden, and are hailing him as a hero and vowing to continue his jihad, while they attempt to create a UN-birthed terror state, dedicated to Israel's destruction.

So what "news" stories did HuffPost decide were more important than this, to put on its front page? Read on --- you're not going to believe it.

This wouldn't be so serious --- or so potentially deadly --- were HuffPost not
the #1 most-read blog on Earth, a top-ten U.S. “news” site and “a top-10 current events and global news site.”

See Action Items at end if you'd like to make your voice known on this matter.




On May 4, HuffPost featured these two headlines:



Hamas now wants peace (after months of its unrelenting terror attacks on Israelis)? And "Palestinian factions" sign a historic pact? Wow!!!

Now, look at those pictures of
Ismail Haniyeh (left), the "Prime Minister" of Hamas, and of him and Mahmoud Abbas, the "President" of the Palestinian Authority. They look like right upstanding fellows, don't they? Considering the U.S. has given, on average, $400 million per year in taxpayer dollars to the Palestinians since 2004 --- rising to $900 million in 2009 --- this is the clean-cut image that they like to project. And as we've relentlessly documented, HuffPost is all too willing to help them convey this clean-cut, diplomatically-acceptable image to the world --- particularly when they're making peaceful sounds (such as below):


But this facade comes at a very heavy price --- because like a good terrorist spin operation, HuffPost pathologically fails to tell us of the bloodthirsty reality lurking behind it.

For example... weren't there a few other statements that came out of Hamas and the P.A. (and Abbas's ruling Fatah Party) in the past few days? Why yes, there were.




Hamas & the P.A./Fatah
hail Osama bin Laden as a hero, condemn his killing, vow that their jihad will continue; their "unity government" won't require that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist

From
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (photos added separately):

"The Islamic nation was shocked with the news that bin Laden had been killed by the non-believers," said the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the ruling Fatah party, in a statement to Maan news. "The fighters in Palestine and around the world who have lost their leaders did not stop their mission and will continue in the tutelage of their masters."

"We tell the Israeli and the American occupiers that we have leaders who have changed history with their Jihad and their steadfastness. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to bring back peace," the statement read. According to Maan news, the group also pledged that the jihad would continue without him.

Statements of support for bin Laden were also heard from Hamas, a designated terrorist organization which runs the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which has typically responded in a harsh manner to rallies not organized by their party, did not break up small rallies in Gaza in support of bin Laden.

"We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."
(Top: A member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade; Bottom: A mother who's part of Hamas; these gangs have now formed a "unity" government, as they display the next generation of their "holy warriors.")


Keep in mind: Hamas's charter calls for the destruction of Israel. And in January 2009, one of Hamas's leaders claimed "We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity."

Further, the U.S.-funded P.A. won't require Hamas to
drop its "platform" of murder against Israel to join the "unity government," because that would be... "unfair":
"We will not demand that Hamas recognize Israel."
- Mahmoud Abbas, May 3, 2011

Demands that the Palestinian Authority insist on this as a condition for any unity government with Hamas "are unfair, unworkable and do not make sense."
- Nabil Shaath (senior aide to Abbas), May 3, 2011

YNet News



How did HuffPost react to all those other statements by Hamas and the P.A./Fatah over the past few days?

It completely ignored them.


Could it be that HuffPost's army of "hundreds of editors and reporters" were unaware of those quotes?

No.
News sources that HuffPost regularly cites (when it wants to) featured full or abbreviated versions of these quotes (in sequence) in the previous two days, including the New York Times, the Guardian, Haaretz and YNet News.




So what "news" stories of global importance did HuffPost decide should appear on its front page, instead of giving these facts any coverage at all?


We paid close attention to HuffPost's front page and World page on May 3 and 4. There were no news stories that focused on those rather unpleasant quotes by Hamas and the P.A./Fatah.

We did, however, grab screencaps of what
HuffPost's crack team of editors decided were "news" stories of such global importance and urgency that they deserved placement on its front page --- for at least one day (in some cases, two or more):
(1) Adult man lives as infant (2 days on front page); (2) Pole dancer award (2 days on front page); (3) Porn star health clinic closes; (4) Beyonce booed; (5) Cameron Diaz marriage "dead"; (6) Drunk airline passenger gropes fight attendant






But aren't we cherry-picking? Doesn't HuffPost usually treat "outrageous" statements and double-speak by Middle East "leaders" in a fair and balanced fashion?

After all, HuffPost has repeatedly claimed it is "nonpartisan." And aside from its user traffic, this is a major reason why it's been able to attract such a top-flight roster of advertisers.

The reality, as HUFF-WATCH readers know, is that HuffPost pathologically protects militant Islamists from being held to account for their bloodthirsty, savage statements, actions and incitement --- while at the same time, it just as pathologically incites hate against Israel.


For example:

In April 2009, HuffPost assigned one of its "reporters" to create an original "news" story about what it determined was a "roundup" of the "most outrageous public statements" by Israeli Foreign Minister Avignor Lieberman, even using Iran's Press TV as a "source."

Yet as we've documented over and over and over and over again, HuffPost has never posted a single news story about --- let alone a "roundup" of --- the murderous, genocide-seeking, threatening statements by senior figures from Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or Al Qaeda against Israel.


In December 2010, HuffPost gave top-line coverage to "news" of Hamas's claims it was committed to a "cease-fire" with Israel (right).
Yet HuffPost completely ignored the torrent of rocket attacks that Hamas had been perpetrating against Israeli Jewish civilians in the preceding weeks, and the genocidal threats that Hamas's leaders had been issuing against Jews.



In March 2011, after the Fogel family (including their 3-month-old daughter) was massacred by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank, HuffPost publicized a "news" story that claimed Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas's leaders "condemned" the attack.
Yet HuffPost completely ignored documentation the fact that in the preceding weeks and months, Abbas's government had been inciting Palestinians to attack Jews, and was celebrating and paying the families of those who perpetrate such attacks. Further, it completely ignored the fact that while Hamas "condemned" the attack in English, it justified it in Arabic --- and photos of its "security people" celebrating the attack on the streets of Gaza (right).



In September 2010 HuffPost's Hamas-supporting Middle East correspondent sat down with the head of Hamas for an exclusive, three-hour interview (1, 2). Yet she failed to ask a single tough question, and actually echoed Hamas's verbiage.
Less than 24 hours later, Hamas operatives targeted and murdered a Jewish mother of six who was nine months pregnant. Yet HuffPost allowed its fawning correspondent to attack users who suggested she should have asked Hamas about its murder sprees and threats against Jewish civilians.

And as far as HuffPost's incitement of hate against Israel goes, one need do no more than scroll through our massive archive for dozens of meticulously-documented incidents.




“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”
- Arianna Huffington, July 29, 2008

“[Arianna Huffington] sees herself as the future of journalism, not the end of it.”
- Time, March 19, 2009

“[W]e are increasingly seen ... as an Internet newspaper, not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news.”
- Arianna Huffington, May 22, 2009




ACTION ITEMS


If you believe HuffPost should start living up to its repeated claims of nonpartisanship in its coverage of Middle East affairs, and are opposed to its persistent pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel bias, we urge you to do three things:
(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here

(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.
An easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock in.
Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the rug.

(3) Forward the link to this story along to others who support Israel and Jews
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2 comments:

  1. As long I can remember, Huffington has always been unapologetic about it’s stance against Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Once again, a stellar piece and sadly realistic overview of HuffPo's hatred and bias towards Israel, while its love affair with Hamas, et al, blatantly
    continues.

    Does the HuffPo have offices in Gaza or West Bank yet?

    ReplyDelete