Pod Save America Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All Israel Military Aid, No Longer Accept AIPAC Funding
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
Sen. Angus King Vows to No Longer Vote for Israel Military Aid Until Gaza Conditions Improve
Europe Won’t Pressure Israel to ‘Commit Suicide’ Amid Gaza Backlash, Palestinian State Push, Says Israeli FM
Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match
New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals
US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue
UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says
Media Outlet Caught Trying to Imply Israel Kills Palestinian Children
Error: Contact form not found.
by Simon Plosker
Trucks carrying aid are seen near the Rafah border in Gaza after entering from Egypt, October 10, 2023. Photo: Sinai for Human Rights/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
As Israel launched multiple airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza last week, the media quickly switched their focus from the atrocities carried out against Israeli civilians on October 7 to the stories of suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
Complete with a dramatic accompanying headline, Business Insider wrote:
Doctors Without Borders told Insider that, on Wednesday, in fact, 100% of their patients were children.
“Today, all of the patients we received at our clinic in Gaza City were children between 10 and 14,” Ayman Al-Djaroucha, deputy project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said on Wednesday.
Was this a pediatric clinic? If so, this is a sensationalist @BusinessInsider headline. If not, it’s a statistically impossible claim.
The Gaza/Hamas propaganda machine is trying to divert your attention away from the stories coming out about murdered, charred Israeli babies.… pic.twitter.com/LDbgi7xdjA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 12, 2023
The claim was certainly astounding. But could it even be statistically possible that every patient brought in for treatment was a young child out of a general population of over two million in Gaza?
The only explanation could be that Israel is deliberately targeting children — a charge that is both grotesque and false.
A professional journalist should be asking these questions or attempting to verify the claims.
Unfortunately, in what is known as the “halo effect,” reporters commonly cite international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), activists and academics — viewing them as authoritative, non-political, and beyond reproach.
Their information is assumed reliable and their analysis is given considerable weight. Even if it could be wrong.
Regarding Doctors Without Borders, NGO Monitor states that it has consistently abused its status as a humanitarian organization to launch venomous anti-Israel political campaigns.
Business Insider, having been called out by both HonestReporting and an eagle-eyed reader who alerted us to the article and contacted the editor, issued this remarkable correction:
Yes, you read that right: “The clinic only treated two children in that period.”
While we appreciate Business Insider taking remedial action, it’s shocking that such a fundamental error could occur. It also demonstrates how the information coming out of the Gaza Strip can be skewed to create a completely false narrative.
And, as the casualties mount in the face of a potentially protracted Israeli military campaign to destroy Hamas, the misinformation and disinformation are only likely to increase.
