The Associated Press has some nerve browbeating readers over the alleged scourge of Israel-Hamas war “misinformation” on social media despite its own guilt of pushing terrorist propaganda.
AP pontificated in its Oct. 24 headline how “Misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is flooding social media. Here are the facts.” The leftist outlet lectured how “[i]n the days since Hamas militants stormed into Israel early Oct. 7, a flood of videos and photos purporting to show the conflict have filled social media, making it difficult for onlookers from around the world to sort fact from fiction.” Yes, AP actually sought to humanize the terrorists, who committed genocide against Israeli civilians, as “militants” while simultaneously whining about so-called social media misinformation surrounding the conflict—but more on that later. AP continued to act like it was a social media traffic cop: “While plenty of real imagery and accounts of the ensuing carnage have emerged, they have been intermingled with users pushing false claims and misrepresenting videos from other events.”
This is the same AP that was one of a slew of left-wing media outlets that wielded Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry talking points to falsely blame the Oct. 17 bombing at the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza on an Israeli airstrike. “Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hospital, Health Ministry says,” read AP’s knee-jerk Oct. 17 headline, which relied on the word of Hamas. A U.S. intelligence assessment later concluded that Israel was not responsible for the bombing. Both the U.S. House and Senate intelligence committees also absolved Israel. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) instead placed the blame squarely at the feet of a “failed rocket launch by militant terrorists.” The original AP article’s argument took the Hamas terrorists’ falsehoods hook, line and stinker and now reads terrible in retrospect:
The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.
Even though AP later stealth-edited its misinformation-laced piece, the damage had already been done. The leftist media that helped propagate the false Hamas allegations against Israel assisted in fueling anti-Israel furor across the Middle East, characterized by mass protests and regional governments denouncing the Jewish State.
The Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed intelligence related to the attack on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) October 18, 2023
Oh but there’s more. A self-described “AP Visual Analysis” from Oct. 21 concluded that a stray rocket fired from Gaza (not Israel) “likely caused [the] deadly hospital explosion.” The “Analysis” even found that Hamas “has not released any evidence to support its claims” that Israel was responsible. But in the Oct. 22 pre-edited edition of AP’s screed against social media “misinformation” about the conflict, the outlet then contradicted its own reporting and made it seem like it was still unclear which side was responsible for the hospital bombing. “The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties,” the outlet brazenly claimed. It’s as if AP reporters don’t read their own outlet’s reporting. Again, AP would later change its story to note its own “visual analysis” absolving Israel but still tried to keep its ridiculous gray area argument intact:
However, a definitive conclusion could not be reached.
To add insult to injury, AP’s aversion to accurately labeling the Hamas barbarians as “terrorists” and preferring the grossly misleading “militant” moniker is actually intentional. NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham reported on Oct. 24 how AP’s “stylebook czars are telling their reporters to avoid ‘the T word’ of terrorism in their reporting [on Hamas], because the subject is ‘intense’ and terms should be ‘more precise.’” That’s despite the fact that Hamas has been a U.S.-designated “terrorist” organization since 1997, according to the U.S. State Department. Ignore that, AP implied. The words terrorist and terrorism are “politicized” and shouldn’t be used when referring to Hamas:
Therefore, the AP is not using the terms for specific actions or groups, other than in direct quotations or when attributed to authorities or others. Instead, we describe specific atrocities, massacres, bombings, assassinations and other such actions.
It’s unclear then why AP is acting like anyone should take it seriously on the threat of so-called “misinformation” pertaining to the Israel-Hamas conflict. They’ve brazenly carried water for terrorists.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact the Associated Press at 212-621-1500 and call it out for its hypocrisy decrying social media “misinformation” while carrying water for Hamas.
