Unethical Axis Headline of the Week: The Washington Post

This, of course, comes with the “Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!” label.

The Post headline truly is despicable. Despite the entire world clamoring for an end, however temporary, to the Gaza war and the abject failure of the U.N. or anyone else to achieve the release of the Israeli hostages, the Post spins the looming success of President Trump’s diplomatic efforts as merely another example of his narcissistic quest for personal acclaim. This is Big Lie of the Resistance #8: Big Lie #8: “Trump Only Cares About Himself, Not the Country.

It is one of the most persistent of the Big Lies that emerged during his first term: two friends repeated it just yesterday. The smear is a great default excuse to refuse ever giving this President credit for anything, even achievements that are impressive, important and remarkable. It is an especially ethically obtuse smear: motives don’t make an action ethical, the conduct does, and the right thing done for the wrong reasons is still the right thing. In this case, the motive used to minimize Trump’s diplomatic triumph is a weak one, for I can’t imagine why Trump would want a Nobel Peace Prize, so thoroughly has that honor been debased by the flagrant politicizing of the award process.

[Aside: Of the 10 Big Lies I compiled through 2023, only #1 (“Trump is just a reality TV star”) and #9 (“Trump’s Mishandling Of The Pandemic Killed People”) have largely been retired from the Axis of Unethical Conduct and the Trump Deranged mob list of justifications for reviling the President of the United States.]

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“Never Mind!” The Axis Media Spreads Hamas Anti-Israel Propaganda, and There Are No Consequences

The Washington Post last night retracted its story misrepresenting an incident in Gaza. The Post, like most of the news media, falsely claimed that Israel killed 30 Gazan civilians who were just trying to get some food (you know, the “Aww, poor Palestinians, still being persecuted by those evil Jews!” narrative).

The Post’s statement was posted on X rather than on its website, and announced that the paper had “deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.” That’s another lie, as it is pure deceit. The story had to be deleted because it was false and should not have been published in the first place. Yes, false news stories are unfair, but that’s a secondary problem.

Palestinian Arab sources had spread the claim that an Israeli strike near a humanitarian aid distribution center resulted in at least 30 deaths and numerous injuries. The international media outlets didn’t consider the source, and leaped to the conclusion that Israel was committing war crimes.

Later that same day, the IDF released the findings of its initial investigation into the incident. These findings indicated that the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site, and that the reports being circulated as fact by media outlets were false. Yet even after the story had been discredited, CNN and MSNBC (among others) continued to stick with the original. anti-Israel spin. I saw this in real time: a Fox News guest told viewers that the report had been debunked, and at exactly the same time, the two Axis networks were repeating the original account.

The IDF again called on the media to be cautious with information published by the Hamas terrorist organization. Gee, ya think? But they aren’t careful and don’t want to be careful. They want to back the Democratic Party’s position that Israel is the villain for reacting to an unprovoked terrorist attack exactly as the United Sates would (and has): by crushing the attacker and ensuring that the actions could never be repeated.

Saying “Oopsie! Never mind!” does not undo the damage caused by the original false reporting. That the Post and other media outlets would accept without confirmation a Hamas narrative shows where their confirmation bias lies, and why they are no longer trustworthy.

On Hillary’s Health, The Post’s Chris Cillizza Flunks Integrity And Bias Tests

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