CNN Deserves First Prize for Anti-Israel, Biased Reporting

Mainstream media did a horrible job of covering the deadly attack in Jerusalem Tuesday morning, ranging from twisting the facts to spreading blatant lies.

 

The centuries-old tradition of blaming the Jews continues with the bashing and double standard applied to the modern State of Israel – the Jew among nations. International and mainstream news services continued this pattern by providing poor, biased and inaccurate coverage of the terror attack carried out by two Arab terrorists Tuesday morning at a Jerusalem synagogue, in which four Israelis were hacked and shot to death.

CNN’s Ben Wedeman, senior international correspondent, takes the cake by initially reporting the attack as a police shooting of two Palestinians.

After getting the facts straight, the influential American cable and television network changed the headline to: “4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians, killed in synagogue attack.”

The Palestinians mentioned in the headline are the terrorists who committed the attack and who were killed by Israeli security forces while butchering Jewish worshipers. This headline puts the perpetrator and victim on the same level. CNN subsequently changed the offensive and erroneous title following complaints.

CNN initially reported that the attack occurred in a mosque rather than a synagogue. The network seems to have made a special effort to point out that the vicious attack occurred in proximity to where an Arab bus driver was found dead earlier this week. Following a police investigation and an autopsy at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, in the presence of a family member, it was determined to be a sad case of suicide, but CNN, like Hamas, tied it in with massacre.

 

Italy’s La Repubblica reported that the attack came after weeks of tension and previous Israeli deaths in terror attacks, noting that 12 Palestinians were killed in the violence, including six who were killed by Israeli security forces while murdering Israelis. Again, there was moral equivalence between the perpetrator and the victim.

The Italian site also inaccurately reported that the high level of tension comes as “Tel Aviv” approved the building of further housing units in the “occupied territories.” First, Israel’s government is located in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv. As for the commentary, not even Hamas had claimed that this attack was in response to planned housing units.

HonestReporting, a media watchdog, found further “headline fails.”

For Canada’s CBC News, the focal point of the attack was the perpetrators: “Jerusalem police fatally shoot 2 after apparent synagogue attack”

For the BBC, it was not two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the attack, but a “Jerusalem synagogue.”

In a BBC interview, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was told not to display a photo of one of the terror victims.

Media sources updated their news and headlines as time progressed and information became clearer, but Reuters, hours after the event, was still referring to the terror incident as a “suspected Palestinian attack.”

In general, mainstream media coverage of news demonstrates a lack of integrity when it comes to Israel. Fueled by Arab distortions, outright lies, and anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, they appear to be shameless when it come to truth, accuracy and balanced reporting of the news in Israel.

Author: United with Israel Staff