Our latest installment in how HuffPost --- the world's #1 most-read online "newspaper" --- takes factual news and deliberately, maliciously, pathologically distorts it, in ways that can only serve two purposes: (1) to incite hate against Israel and Jews on false grounds, and (2) to protect militant Islamists from being held to public account for their threats and violent actions against them.
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| From Times of Israel: "300 Palestinians attempt to breach Gaza border fence" |
Earlier today, Hamas allowed (ordered?) around 300 angry Palestinians to rush the Israeli border, which they did by walking over a 1,000 foot no-man's-land buffer zone that Hamas knows it is not to allow any Gazans to enter. As anyone who pays attention to Israel knows full well, it is at borders such as these that Gaza militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad recently fired an anti-tank guided missile at an IDF jeep on routine patrol, launching it and its occupants an estimated 20 meters into the air, seriously injuring several Israeli soldiers. And that was before the recent 8-day conflict.
The IDF spokesman reported that:
- Regarding the border incident, IDF soldiers were ordered to first fire in the air to warn Gazans to stay away from the fence
- When they didn't stop charging the fence, soldiers were ordered to fire only at their legs
- In the broader context, since the cease fire was agreed to, Hamas has fired between 12-20 rockets into Israel
The AP source story played the story relatively "straight" -- with the headline reading:
"Gaza Crowds Surge at Israel Border Fence; 1 Dead"
ABC played the AP story "straight":
NBC also played the AP story "straight":
So did most of the other mainstream media outlets (using the search string "ap" and the first sentence of the raw AP story.
The Times of Israel, however, posted pictures of the rioting Palestinians:
So how did HuffPost --- the self-proclaimed "nonpartisan" newspaper --- decide to play the exact same source story from the AP?
Here's the headline that HuffPost crafted and positioned on its front page:
(1) HuffPost's front page headline copy: "Israeli Gunfire Kills Palestinian, Injures 19 Near Border"
There is only one implication in this inflammatory, libelous headline: that a bunch of Israeli soldiers were basically sitting around, and one said to the others, "Say, there's a bunch of peaceful Palestinians, planting daisies on their land, while singing 'kumbaya.' I'm bored --- let's go shoot some of 'em!!!" HuffPost gave no account of why there was any gunfire at all. (And as we've reported previously, HuffPost ran no --- zero --- front page stories about any of the hundreds of rockets, missiles and mortars that Hamas fired into Israel between Nov. 10-14, which is what led to the 8-day conflict.)
Next, let's examine that picture that HuffPost chose to accompany that headline: a tank? With its turret pointed right at civilians? HuffPost made the conscious decision to actually imply (claim) that Israel opened fire with a tank on Palestinian civilians. News flash for HuffPost --- which probably doesn't have a single person in its newsroom (which is larger than the New York Times'), who ever served in uniform: If an Israeli tank opened fire on a group of civilians, there'd be a hell of a lot more than one of them killed.
So why would HuffPost deliberately lie about this? You should ask that question to HuffPost's senior management (and advertisers). And didn't Arianna Huffington publicly announce that she prohibited "inflammatory claims" at her site? Why yes, she did, years ago. That, however, is just another of the lies that she has pathologically tells the public, and presumably, her advertisers (including your tax-funded Cadillac -- the official co-sponsor of HuffPostLive).
(2) Now let's examine the story page to which that inflammatory, libelous headline led:
HuffPost actually implied that it was the Israelis who breached the "cease fire" ---- but now, with "gunfire" instead of (implied) tank fire.
HuffPost made no mention whatsoever in its headline that it was, in fact, the Palestinians who repeatedly have broken the cease fire, and the terms which each side agreed to uphold to maintain it.
The inestimable Melanie Phillips demolished the lie upon which HuffPost's false allegation is based (emphasis added):
Well there’s a surprise – rioting in Gaza at the Israel border yesterday and today, when dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli forces and tried to breach the border fence within the 300 metres-wide buffer zone within which no Palestinian can enter, established by the Israelis as a deterrent to cross-border terrorism. Palestinians reported that one man was killed and six injured after the Israelis opened fire.
HUFF-WATCH's reporting in recent days of how HuffPost has actively twisted its "news" headlines and article copy in order to incite hate against Israel and Jews, and protect Hamas:
More, older stories:
Also see our massive archive for more detailed documentation of HuffPost acting as a PR shill for Hamas.
How does this all compare to Arianna's claims that HuffPost is a professional "newspaper," and better than its competitors?
"If you're going to produce great journalism, you haveto build a team of people who are working together and driving toward the same goals editorially.”
– Arianna Huffington, April 7, 2011 --- two months after being put in control of all of AOL's "news" and "content""AOL's acquisition of HuffPost has allowed us... to continue to change the culture here."
--- Tim Armstrong, Chairman, AOL, the genius who bought HuffPost and put Arianna in charge of all "news" and "content" --- May 14, 2011
“[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
“We are aiming to go beyond just facts, to create a narrative... [W]e think bringing journalism to a new level is exactly what people are looking for.”
- Arianna Huffington, October 20, 2009
ACTION ITEMS
If you believe HuffPost should stop doing PR for Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, and inciting hatred against Israel and Jews, we urge you to do these 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 Jews and Israel --- particularly journalists!!!
(4) Email this article to your Congressional representatives --- along with the following "NO HUFFPOST" graphic, and tell them to post it in the windows of their offices, to show that that they will no longer enable or legitimize the West's #1 facilitator of the cyber-jihad against Israel, Jews and the U.S. military:
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