OPINION:
If you’re already grappling with record-low confidence in your reporting and questions about your penchant for truth-telling, it’s perhaps most practical to go above and beyond to rebuild your reputation.
Yet the mainstream press somehow keeps missing this basic lesson, proving to seemingly have little interest in rebuilding its reputation or righting past wrongs. Bias, laziness and mistakes make it no surprise that just 31% of Americans trust the media “a great deal or a fair amount.”
The most recent example is a New York Times photo and headline about a malnourished 18-month-old that went viral and sparked outrage. The headline “Young, Old and Sick Starve to Death in Gaza: ‘There Is Nothing’” was on the paper’s front page with a disturbing photo of a woman holding an emaciated child.
The caption focused on malnutrition and starvation, creating the notion, according to critics, that the child was solely suffering as a result of the war in Gaza, with no initial mention that he was actually born with a genetic disorder.
Later, though, the Times issued a clarification.
“We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated [the child] and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems,” the Times wrote in a note indicating an alteration to the story.
It feels like the sort of detail journalists would want to confirm before plastering an image on the front page of a paper and using an incomplete picture to drive a narrative. And it’s a particularly painful error that emerged just as new videos of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have gone viral.
The Associated Press’ description of these hostage videos showing Israelis clearly languishing in Hamas captivity is horrific and heartbreaking, to say the least.
“The videos released late last week by militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad show two skeletal hostages pleading for their lives,” the AP reported. “In one, Evyatar David says he is digging his own grave and speaks of days without food. In the other, Rom Braslavski writhes in agony on a dirty mattress and says injuries in his foot prevent him from being able to stand.”
The videos are a sobering reminder of the absolute evil Hamas perpetuated on Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack — a pain that continues to persist as 50 people are still believed to be held by terrorists in Gaza. There’s confirmation that about 20 of these individuals are still alive, with very limited information about their health status.
Ultimately, these images are a reminder of the true cost of Hamas’ attack and the terror group’s ongoing refusal to free hostages and behave in a humane manner. The truth is that the war in Gaza could have ended long ago if the hostages had been released and Hamas had relented from its insatiable lust for Israel’s destruction.
Sadly, Hamas continues to use violence and vile tactics, weaponizing its lies to perpetuate mistruths about Israel. Furthermore, factions in the West on college campuses and in other venues continue to extend sympathies that only fuel the terrorists’ actions.
These individuals and groups have many times inadvertently become pawns for terror-loving maniacs bent on reaching their ultimate goal: slaughtering the Jewish people and wiping Israel off the map.
Through propaganda and a lethargic media’s biting at apparently spurious photo ops, among other absurdities, Hamas somehow always seems to have some level of informational control — a dynamic that tragically helps fuel its wickedness.
To be clear, no one is denying that starvation is unfolding inside Gaza. What’s being disputed is who holds responsibility for the ongoing conflict, human suffering and chaos in the region.
In his own column on the matter, the ever-astute Cal Thomas hit the nail on the head.
“Such pictures are gobbled up and distributed to the world without question by media that are always critical of Israel and hardly critical at all of forces that seek to destroy the Jewish state,” Mr. Thomas wrote, later adding, “Pictures and the narrative accompanying them can be manipulated to serve the ends of Hamas.”
As starvation and desperation overtake Gaza, Hamas is the sole party responsible for the carnage and instability that have collectively ushered in indisputable pain and suffering.
The best way to stop starvation and save lives in Gaza is to neutralize Hamas, stop radical terrorists’ obsession with wiping Israel off the map, and quit feeding into the nonsense by falling for propaganda, lies and lazy media antics.
This evil has no place in the modern era, and Oct. 7 proved these radicals are more than willing to act on their diabolical desires. Israel is right to defend itself from such horrors and to seek a path that prevents Hamas from ever again inflicting a similar tragedy on its people.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is the author of four books.
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