Summary:
- Starting at 5:30am, and by 8:00am EST on Nov. 21, newspapers and blogs that use AP as primary source published top-line stories of Tel Aviv bus bombing that included the Hamas official's praise and justification of this terror act.
. - HuffPost's version of the AP story, however, which it did not make a headline, omitted the Hamas official's praise and justification, and falsely claimed Hamas had made no official statement about the incident.
. - These are not isolated incidents or "accidents," but rather, are part of HuffPost's continuous pattern of protecting Hamas and effectively doing its PR --- while giving top-line, enduring coverage to stories containing inflammatory accusations against Israel and Jews that it knows (or should know) are untrue.
Background
Shortly after 5:00am EST, news broke from Tel Aviv of a civilian bus bombing that occurred directly across from IDF headquarters. At latest count, at least 27 people were injured, several severely. Hamas made an official statement to the AP, praising and justifying the attack, which it reported in its story, written by Ariel David, minutes later:
While Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack, it praised the bombing.
"We consider it a natural response to the occupation crimes and the ongoing massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told The Associated Press.
At 5:33am, the National Post (Canada) posted the original version of the AP story as its splash, which included Hamas praising the attack in the headline:
Hamas praises attack after bomb rips through Tel Aviv bus, but doesn’t take credit
And in the body of the National Post article (again, published at 5:33am):
The other big news bureau, Reuters, also ran the story at 8:12am, with Hamas's praise for, and celebration of the attack in the headline:
By 8:00am, many other news sites and blogs, small and large, reported the AP story as-is, or reported other sources who had documented Hamas praising the attack, and even threatening more, including CNN, Fox News and Legal Insurrection (click to see screencaps).
HuffPost ran the AP story --- but not as the headline, and edited out the part about Hamas praising and justifying the attack
The AP is the bureau upon which HuffPost most often relies for its raw news content. In addition to being the world's #1 most-read online "newspaper," HuffPost also has a larger news room than the New York Times. It has all the assets to root out every one of the most obscure stories it featured on its front page today, including:
- Woman Arrested For Allegedly Having Sex With Skeleton (Sweden)
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- These Special Turkeys Like Carly Simon Music
. .
- Kim Kardashian Struggles With Her Leather Leggings
You get the idea: HuffPost has hundreds of researchers, editors and journalists who scour world news, 24-7, up to the second, every day. There is no possible way that HuffPost was unaware of (a) the bus bombing, and (b) the fact that Hamas was praising and celebrating it. Yet here is how the self-proclaimed "nonpartisan newspaper" decided to play this story:
(1) From the time the bus bombing story broke (5:14am EST) to after 10:00am EST, HuffPost decided it was not newsworthy enough to merit its top headline. It didn't make the story its top headline until around 10:20am.
(2) Until around 1:00pm, HuffPost's version of the AP story falsely claimed "There was no official comment from Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad." And even after HuffPost updated the story, around 1:00pm, to include Hamas's praise and justification, it never changed the headline --- nor did it post a separate story focusing on this fact.
(3) This is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of ignoring Hamas's threatening, then taking credit for and celebrating terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians --- yet giving front-page coverage to what it knows are proof-less allegations against Israel and Jews.
(4) As HuffPostMonitor pointed out, HuffPost's headline generically described a "bus explosion" --- as if this bus just magically exploded, without any cause. This is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of ascribing no human involvement in attacks on Jews --- when those attacks are perpetrated by Palestinians.Here is the proof that validates all of these allegations.
(1) From the time the bus bombing story broke (5:14am EST) to after 10:00am EST, HuffPost decided it was not newsworthy enough to merit its top headline.
This screencap was taken at 8:16am. Instead of running the bus bombing story as its top headline as soon as it broke, HuffPost decided that a two-day-old story designed to whip up more hate against conservative activist Grover Norquist should remain the blaring headline:
It wasn't until after 10:00am --- 5 hours after HuffPost became aware of the bus bombing --- that it decided to make the story its top headline:
Note the subhead: "Bus explodes in Tel Aviv, injuring 10." While this might be an appropriate initial statement, the fact is that by the time HuffPost published this headline, it knew (or should have known) that this was no mere "explosion" --- it was a bombing.
HuffPost's story page was no better (screencap taken at 9:01am)
(2) Until around 1:00pm, HuffPost's version of the AP story falsely claimed "There was no official comment from Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad."
I found the bus bombing story at HuffPost at around 8:15am, and noticed immediately that unlike the other versions of the story being reported, HuffPost's version not only didn't feature Hamas's statements in the headline (or a separate story), it actually denied there were any official statements.
I began taking screencaps of the story page at 8:15am. This screencap was taken at 10:00am --- note the copy in the last sentence:
"There was no official comment from Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad."
At 10:44am, having not found a single reference on HuffPost to the fact that Hamas had praised and celebrated this bombing, I did a search on the the spokesman's name: Fawzi Barhoum. HuffPost's own search engine confirmed that it had no mention of Hamas's spokesman on this day:
Why would HuffPost omit Hamas's praise for and celebration of the bombing from the story?
Only HuffPost's senior management can answer that question. You might ask them. If they refuse to answer, you might pose the question to HuffPost's advertisers, whose money makes this madness possible (except in the case of Cadillac, which is using our tax money to enable HuffPost).
(3) This is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of ignoring Hamas's threatening, then taking credit for and celebrating terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians --- yet giving front-page coverage to what it knows are proof-less allegations against Israel and Jews.
Examples of HuffPost ignoring Hamas threats, celebrations, etc.
From Nov 17, Hamas officials claimed:
“We (Hamas) have missed suicide attacks. Wait for us soon in the bus stations and cafes.”
As documented here, HuffPost completely ignored this shocking statement --- and instead continued focusing all of its efforts on depicting Israel as the aggressor in the Gaza conflict.
As documented here, in March 2011, when the Fogel family --- including their three-month-old baby --- were slaughtered in their home by Palestinians, HuffPost completely ignored the fact that Hamas and Palestinians were caught on camera openly celebrating, and taking credit for the grisly attack. See "Fogel family slaughter, evidence file," section 4.
As documented here, in December 2010, HuffPost completely ignored all of Hamas's recent terror attacks and genocidal threats against Israel and Jews in general... yet published on its front page what it claimed was Hamas's "commitment to truce with Israel":
Whereas HuffPost ignores Hamas's outrageous threats and acts against Jews, it applies the exact opposite treatment to accusations against Jews and Israel that it knows (or has reason to know) are untrue, or severely decontextualized.
For example, on Nov. 18, HuffPost published as its splash headline, "Sharon's Son: 'Flatten All Of Gaza'." Why does Ariel Sharon's opinion merit any attention --- especially since HuffPost's own story acknowledges that he has zero policy role --- that his occupation is "manag(ing) his family’s farm in Israel"?
From our archives:
- When al-Jazeera --- one of the world's most notorious pro-terrorist propaganda networks --- posted a totally unverifiable smear, alleging that Israeli guards "humiliated" a female detainee --- HuffPost ran it right on its front page, not knowing whether it was PallyWood propaganda (Links to detailed stories, from left to right: 1, 2, 3)
- "Outrageous Statements": HuffPost periodically runs items on its front page alluding to "outrageous statements" by Israeli officials and religious figures. (Link)
Yet HuffPost pathologically ignores, and has never run a comparable analysis of "outrageous statements" by Hamas or other radical Islamist terror groups --- which tend to include genocidal threats. (Link; more, more)
Then, there was the August 2009 story that HuffPost published on its front page, entitled "Swedish Article Suggests Israeli Troops Kill Palestinians, Harvest Organs."
The Reality: This "news" story was false on a multitude of levels.
Why HuffPost knew, or should have known the story was false/misleading: First, the story itself revealed that the "reporter" admitted he had "no idea, no clue" if the allegations in his "story" are true. Turns out the Palestinian family at the root of the story denied making these claims --- and basic fact-checking reveals that what is alleged is medically impossible.
Did HuffPost's crack team of 53 "editors" fail to do any basic fact-checking into this age-old blood libel against Jews --- or did they ignore what they found? Whichever was the case, it didn't prevent them from matching this inflammatory claim with a picture of grinning Israeli soldiers, marching towards the photographer --- as if they're proud of committing the barbarity that the Swedish "article" (and HuffPost) accused them of.
This false "news" story incited a torrent of hate-filled user comments against Israel and Jews, which HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish.
See complete documentation of this incident here.
More:
Archive of anti-Israel, ant-Semitic bias, libels and hate at HuffPost
Has Arianna been lying since 2005 about HuffPost's bias, and mission? It seems so.
The Stimulus And The (Approved) Response: Anti-Semitism and Israel-Hatred on Huffington Post
(4) As HuffPostMonitor pointed out, HuffPost's headline generically described a "bus explosion" --- as if this bus just magically exploded, without any cause.
This is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of ascribing no human involvement in attacks on Jews --- when those attacks are perpetrated by Palestinians.
For example, as documented here, in 2009, when a Palestinian used an ax to murder a 16 year old Jewish boy in Israel, and maim his younger friend, HuffPost claimed only that this was an "ax attack" --- as if axes, like buses, can magically hurt Jews without any human interference.
UPDATES
(1) HuffPost updated the story at about 1:00pm to include the full, unedited version, including Hamas praising and celebrating the attack.
(2) But HuffPost completely removed the story from its front page – so one would never know the reality, if they relied only upon HuffPost for its news. How do we know it removed the story? Because we took a full-page JPG of the front page.
(3) HuffPost also completely ignored the recorded evidence of Hamas openly celebrating the bus bombing, and stating, “God willing, we will be seeing black body bags.” GatewayPundit, a one-man blog, posted the story at 1:13pm. As of this writing (8:00am, Nov. 22), HuffPost has still not published this story.
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 protecting and doing PR for Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, and inciting hatred against Israel and Jews, 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 Jews and Israel --- particularly journalists!!!
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