Hamas lied, media complied: Media spin on October 7 massacre puts Jewish lives at risk

The murder of 1200 men, women and children on October 7, 2023, somehow gave credibility to deadly cowards - with the international media echoing Hamas spin and putting Jewish lives in danger, writes Tim Blair.

In an imaginary world of good, Hamas’s rape, slaughter, torture and kidnapping spree on October 7, 2023, should have disqualified Hamas from existence.

It should also have piled a mortal level of ridicule upon anybody supporting them.

But the opposite happened. The murder of 1200 men, women and children on October 7 somehow gave credibility to deadly cowards. The international media immediately took the side of Hamas.

On October 17, 2023, just ten days after Hamas’s bestial butchery, an explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza killed a still-unknown number of people.

Hamas – the same gang that had raped and killed so many innocents not even a fortnight earlier – blamed Israel.

And the media believed them.

They believed Hamas, and they told Hamas’s story to the world. They even did Hamas the gentle favour of not referring directly to Hamas.

“Hundreds feared dead or injured in Israeli air strike on hospital in Gaza, Palestinian officials say,” the BBC reported. “Palestinian officials” are, of course, Hamas – brutal rulers of the Gaza Strip.

The New York Times wrote: “At least 500 people were killed by an Israeli air strike at a Gaza hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.”

Again, the “Palestinian Health Ministry” is Hamas-controlled.

Melbourne’s Miznon restaurant staff console each other after a group of about 20 anti-Israel activists targeted the Hardware Lane restaurant reportedly chanting "death to the IDF". Picture: NewsWire / Nadir Kinani

Many journalists took their cues from the United Nations, where Hamas-hugging delegates blamed Israel for “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”.

Those same caring delegates, the UN noted, “also engaged in a series of interactive dialogues on the right to education, cultural rights and the impact of climate change on persons with albinism”.

No offence to albinos, Albanians or anybody who voted for Albo, but the UN needs to be oxygen-depleted. This is not a metaphor.

Of course, it soon emerged that the likely cause of the Al-Ahli Hospital disaster wasn’t a deliberate Israeli strike but a misfired Palestinian rocket.

“Rather than having been an Israeli attack on civilians,” the left-leaning Atlantic reported, “the balance of evidence suggests that it was a result of terrorists’ disregard for the lives of the people on whose behalf they claim to be fighting.”

Media corrections grudgingly followed. The New York Times admitted its hospital bombing report “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified”.

Jonathan Munro, deputy chief executive of BBC News, sought sympathy. “Somewhere along the line, human beings are going to make a mistake on a bit of output,” he said – that particular “bit of output” being an accusation of mass murder.

“When it gets magnified and is used as an example of getting things wrong,” Munro continued, “it’s a very uncomfortable place to be.”

Not as uncomfortable as Melbourne, though, where Hamas-friendly goons – possibly emboldened by media support for their savage anti-Jewish cause – are repeatedly attacking Jewish properties, businesses and places of worship.

It happened again last Friday in Melbourne. A synagogue’s doors were set afire while worshippers were inside. A nearby Jewish restaurant was stormed by Palestinian activists.

And on Saturday, cars were set ablaze outside an Israel-connected business.

While this onslaught continues, the global press keeps publishing inflammatory Hamas lies.

“At least 31 people were killed Sunday morning in southern Gaza, according to the Strip’s health ministry,” the highbrow Washington Post reported last month, “when Israeli troops opened fire on crowds making their way to collect aid.”

It’s the Al-Ahli Hospital saga all over again, featuring barbaric Israelis and tragic civilians in a storyline provided by Hamas’s Gaza health ministry. Once that fable was viewed by 2.4 million readers, the usual correction was offered.

“The article failed to make it clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by the Post,” the paper wrote. “The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.”

Here’s an idea: instead of placing trust in lunatics who rape and kill terrified girls at a music festival, maybe just don’t.

Not only would reports be more accurate, but Jews everywhere – including in Australia – would possibly be made significantly safer by a reduction in vicious dishonesty.

Obviously, an assumption is included in that advice. That assumption – a very generous one – being that the media would care for Jewish safety.

We’ll only know that to be true when the press stop treating Hamas as a source and instead see them for the demented killers they are.

Originally published as Hamas lied, media complied: Media spin on October 7 massacre puts Jewish lives at risk