Opinion
Can we stop even pretending that the mainstream media are anything but deranged cheerleaders for the worst people on the planet? That much is clear from the Australian journalists’ union’s open letter calling to reject “bothsidesism” on Gaza. Meaning, in other words, that journalists only regard one side of the story as legitimate: Hamas.
Much television and radio reporting here is informed by a clear view all Palestinians – but no Jews – are victims in this war […]
How else to explain the statement’s failure to condemn the bestial murder, rape and defiling of dead Israeli citizens minding their own business in their own homes in their own country on October 7.
The Australian
Yet the media’s uncritical fan-girling of the brutal terrorists of Gaza studiously ignores that source’s amply demonstrated dedication to lying through their teeth. For instance, interviewed on the ABC, Hamas international relations head Basem Naim claimed they never planned to attack Israeli civilians on October 7. Nor had it planned to take hostages, he said.
Consider, too, the reaction of the media to the claim that Hamas had beheaded babies. The media seized on initial uncertainties in a fluid situation to deny that such an atrocity had happened at all. Some apologised for even reporting it. Yet, we have since learned that both photographic and forensic evidence proves the story was true. The number of beheaded babies was exaggerated, but how many beheaded babies are too many for the media to declare it an atrocity?
Then there was the Hamas rocket that exploded in the carpark of al Shifa hospital. Again the media immediately and uncritically parroted Hamas’ lie that it was an Israeli airstrike. To this day, not a few in the media continue to deny the established facts of both incidents.
This is the source the mainstream media uncritically rely on, while refusing to believe anything Israel says.
How else to explain Stuff running this obvious Hamas propaganda?
In the neonatal intensive care unit, Mohammed Balousha made the awful discovery.
The decomposing bodies of the four babies. Eaten by worms. Blackened by mould. Mauled, Balousha said, by stray dogs.
“A terrible and horrific scene,” he told The Post. He took video.
The grim discovery was a reminder of the harrowing civilian toll of Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas, a campaign that has spared neither hospitals nor children.
Stuff
Yet Stuff barely deigns to mention — and even then with sneering scepticism, despite a mountain of evidence — that Hamas uses hospitals as military bases. That is a war crime. Attacking a hospital being used as a military base is not.
But no mention of that at all from Stuff.
Yet the story even on the surface has glaring inconsistencies. The supposed nurse claims that oxygen supply was cut off, but that he left the babies on their respirators. It’s also notable that the only source for the story is Palestinian. Given both Hamas’ demonstrated campaign of staging videos of fake “wounded” and “dead” (some of whom inconveniently take up their beds and walk before the camera stops running), not to mention their stated determination for as many of their own people to die as “martyrs” as possible, the whole thing should be treated with utter suspicion.
Yet, Stuff parrots the whole thing uncritically.
Notably, too, Stuff left out these paragraphs from the file story:
“In response to the claims, the Israel Defence Forces said “it did not operate inside al Nasr hospital,” and that “these allegations are not only false but also a perverse exploitation of innocent lives, used as tools to spread dangerous misinformation”.
“This is more evident when taking into account that the IDF assisted in moving newborns from the pediatric ward of the Shifa hospital to safety, as well as provide Israeli incubators in the process,” the statement added.”
The South Yorkshire Scoop
At least the few outlets that repeated the story had the shreds of decency to keep those in, even if buried near the end of the story where they knew hardly anyone would read them. Stuff is too busy fangirling for Hamas to even do that much.
Tellingly, none of the major Australian media outlets — The Australian, The Age, or the ABC, had at the time of writing elected to run the story.
Update:
The ABC finally ran the story today, but with heavy qualifications.