Headlines Humanize Hamas Baby-Killer Terrorist

Short-lived headlines by the Associated Press and other news outlets show indifference for Jewish victims of the Jerusalem Light Rail terror attack and sympathy for the Hamas terrorist.

The news spread fast when a Hamas terrorist plowed his car into a crowd of innocent civilians at the Jerusalem Light Rail. The murderous rampage, which Hamas has proudly praised, resulted in the death of three-month old Chaya Zisel Braun while seriously wounding nine others. What did the Associated Press (AP) and other media outlets like Yahoo News report in the wake of this terrible tragedy?

Israeli police shoot man in east Jerusalem.

Within minutes, other news sites picked up the story from AP and posted similarly inaccurate headlines.

As details of the attack became clear, many news outlets replaced the “short-lived” headlines within hours to read: “Palestinian kills baby at Jerusalem station” (The Associated Press) and “Palestinian rams car into Jerusalem crowd, killing baby” (Yahoo News).

Other media outlets, consistently known for showing anti-Israel bias, either failed to correct erroneous headlines or made corrections that still implied ambiguity about the nature of what happened. “Jerusalem driver shot after ramming pedestrians: police” (The French Associated Press) and “Jerusalem car ‘attack’ kills baby at rail station” (BBC).

The Associated Press blamed “lack of information” for their insensitive headline, saying:

“The headline in question was short-lived, written when confirmed details of what happened were scarce. The headline was replaced in just over a half hour as AP continued to publish updates about the incident, the driver and the victim. The final version of the story, and its headline, made clear what had happened.”

Other mainstream media offered no such explanations for their reporting bias, nor do they make any effort to report about Israel objectively despite claiming “journalistic objectivity” for humanizing terrorists and “telling their side of the story.”

The New York Times, a media outlet well-known for anti-Israel bias, got called out by American media watchdog CAMERA and criticized for redirecting “readers away from the facts of Palestinian violence to focus instead on Israel’s alleged misdeeds.” They called such one-sided reporting, “journalistic manipulation,” and accused the Times of “cherry-picking what facts to share with readers and how to frame them.”

Why Does The Mainstream News Bash Israel?

Reporting news based on the information available requires diligent fact gathering, some of which can be unclear when news breaks. However, too often we see a pattern of news reports casting Israel in a negative light while making every concession to Hamas terrorists.

For example, the Jerusalem Light Rail terrorist who murdered baby Chana Zisel Braun will be buried today in Jerusalem. What does the Yahoo News and Associated Press headline say?

Notice that the word “terrorist” is nowhere in the headline, and the article makes every possible attempt to avoid calling what happened an attack:

“Tensions have been rising ahead of Sunday night’s funeral for Abdelrahman Shaludi, the Palestinian who drove into a Jerusalem crowd on Wednesday, killing a three-month-old girl and wounding six others.”

No use of the word “attack”.

No mention of the driver as a “terrorist”.

Not even a reference to the fact that the driver was a member of Hamas who celebrated and praised his actions and encouraged others to use their cars to kill Jewish babies (see the media campaign on Facebook by Hamas news agency Shehab).

News reports that strip out reference to attackers as terrorists and try to cast doubt about the nature of the attack want to turn public opinion against Israel.

The press treats terror attacks more fairly in countries other than Israel, such as the recent terrorist attacks in Canada and the hatchet attack by a Muslim extremist against two New York City policemen. The word “attack” is not put in quotation marks. Conclusions that perpetrators were in fact “terrorists” are not played down or cast in doubt.

The mainstream news media reserves such scorn for terror attacks that happen in Israel. Those of us who stand United with Israel should do all we can to expose and protest against such media bias.

What do you think about how the media handled reporting of the Jerusalem Light Rail Terror Attack, especially compared to coverage of other recent terror attacks?

Author: Mike Mintz
Marketing and Creative Director, United with Israel