Right now, the top story on the Israel-Gaza conflict on NBC, WaPo, NYT, and LAT is the IDF accidentally killing 3 hostages. Stories from the last week include multiple reports about potential Geneva Code violations. And in the weeks before the ceasefire, there was a constant drumbeat of opinion pieces calling for a ceasefire.
Yeah, such influence they have... /s
Everything I see has a very heavy and obvious bias in favour of Israel, even for the few stories they do choose to cover, e.g. "42 perished in airstrike" vs "3 IDF soldiers murdered by militant extremists". We also still see Western media repeating the falsehoods about beheaded babies, baked babies, mass rapes etc - even though Israel eventually admitted it wasn't true.
And that's aside from the absolute nonsense we've seen where anyone against the ethic cleansing is branded an anti-semite and risks cancrllation.
Israeli politicians are publicly calling for the total destruction of Gaza and relocation of anyone left, and for settling Gaza with Israelis - they're not even trying to hide it anymore, yet Western media is largely silent.
Hamas absolutely did behead children, and rape and torture and murder dozens of women. That was not made up.
Israel has been showing pictures and videos of the bodies found after the Hamas attack. (They are showing them right now in various locations in SoCal.) Witnesses who survived the Hamas attack have testified to witnessing rapes and murders. Even the few Hamas terrorists taken alive have admitted to both.
No, they did not. I can't believe these lies are still being peddled, though you are proving my point about the culpability of the traditional media - they originally aired this "news" with minimal fact-checking, and then barely a mention of when Israel admitted, bit by bit, that they never happened.
> Witnesses who survived the Hamas attack have testified to witnessing rapes...
You mean like the witness that later admitted he was never even there? Or the one who later admitted he made it up? Or the other witnesses who later admitted they were just repeating what they were told by others? AFAIK, there isn't a single first-hand testimony that agrees with you.
> Even the few Hamas terrorists taken alive have admitted to both
You can't seriously be taking confession taken under torture as fact? Hamas have publicly, repeatedly and vehemently denied any rapes - and if you think about it, claiming that mass rapes and tortures were going on in the middle of a firefight (with not only small arms, but tanks and Apaches!)... is kind of unbelievable. More recently, we've seen the head rabbi of the IDF say that it's totally fine for Israeli soldiers to rape Palestinian civilians.
Hamas absolutely did kill civilians on October 7th, and some were definitely beheaded (no children though) - their actions were horrendous enough without Israel making up atrocity propaganda. My guess is that Israel panicked after killing so many of their own on Oct 7th, then Netanyahu realised it would be the perfect time to save his presidency by invading and occupying Gaza (this is pure speculation on my part, of course)
But I fear now we're veering into an argument that isn't suitable for HN; I've said my piece and would politely and respectfully invite you to do some research on Israel's recent admissions regarding their original claims on Oct 7th.
Why make up blatant lies like this when mainstream media has been very critical of Israel for the past few weeks? The only exception is Fox News.
Hell, I still see Western media repeating the untruths of mass raprs, babies hung on clothes lines etc, even though they were debunked a long time ago, and even Israel now admits those events didn't happen and, furthermore, admits many civilians were killed by Israeli helicopter and tank fire on October 7th.
I will say I've noticed a small improvement in the past week or two, with publication of many more stories of the horrors of what Israel is doing in Gaza, and some improvement in language use.
As I've said before, Hamas definitely murdered many civilians - that's a bad enough atrocity without the need to make up stories.
I feel we're squarely in non-HN territory now, so I bid you adieu.
That said, I agree that the EU would try to censor it. I am not in favor of giving them the opportunity. Making false statements is not a crime.
I'm genuinely confused as to how it could be seen in any other way? Entire family trees wiped out, civilians and doctors killed indiscriminately by dumb bombs, snipers and drones, deliberate targeting of journalists to hide their war crimes. Israeli politicians are now even coming out and saying it - they want to deport Palestinians from Gaza, then occupy and settle it. They're saying it out loud now, as if it wasn't clear already, and still people don't believe them.
> Making false statements is not a crime.
Correct, not a legal crime; though I'm sure many would agree that making false statements to "justify" an invasion and ethic cleansing is a moral crime against humanity.
It's become apparent that the Israeli political/war/propaganda machine has an incredible amount of influence - far beyond anything I'd personally imagined could be possible. They've been able to effectively commandeer most of the West's "traditional" mass media, but social media is a huge problem for their narrative, as it allows people to see what is really happening, often in real-time.
I clearly see now the benefit to humanity or a system like Twitter, but it really worries me that Twitter/X is in the hands of a single billionaire, especially one with some very controversial views. I'm not sure what the solution is, but we (humanity) really need something free from the influence of government (foreign or domestic) and other bad actors.