The Media’s Israeli Atrocity Treadmill

News outlets are so busy chasing Israel’s latest crime in Gaza — currently its horrific attack on Nasser Hospital — they never pause to piece together the bigger story of genocide.

An investigation by CNN into Israel’s strike on the Nasser Hospital this week — an attack that killed more than 20 people, including emergency workers and five journalists — is a case study in how even well-intentioned journalism, ostensibly examining Israeli crimes, ends up concealing more than it reveals.

[consortiumnews.com]

{Let us note in passing that the Israeli military is pretending to investigate itself only to dampen the rare furore that has erupted over the strike, chiefly because the new atrocity was caught on camera and killed journalists working for major Western news organisations.

Israel has abandoned almost all of its previous investigations as soon as the Western media could be provided with a fresher atrocity to report on. And Israel seems to have an endless production line of atrocities with which to distract them.

All too predictably, Israel’s “initial investigation” found a “Hamas” excuse.

According to the Israeli military, it hit Nasser Hospital’s stairwell because it had identified a camera there supposedly being used by Hamas.}

No ‘Mishap’

{Even if we take this claim seriously — which, outrageously, is exactly what the Western media are doing — it falls apart on even the most cursory inspection.

Not least, the Israeli military was fully aware that this was a favoured spot for Gaza’s journalists, a place where they often congregated.

The high elevation and good cell signal meant that it was ideal for uploading their material and for conducting live broadcasts.

CNN’s investigation features several photographs and videos of the journalists Israel killed this week working on the balcony and stairwell in the preceding several months. A photo in the story, by Mohammad Salama, was taken on June 12 and includes two of the journalists Israel killed this week: Mariam Abu Daqqa and Moath Abu Taha.

All of this was known to the Israeli military. When they targeted a “Hamas camera” they knew that, in reality, that camera was being used by a Reuters journalist, Hussam Al-Masri.

Israel’s ever-present drones, their whine constantly filling the skies over Gaza, had been watching him and other journalists on that stairwell day after day, week after week, for months on end.

And when Israel struck 10 minutes later with two coordinated missiles, it knew that the main victims would be the emergency workers who went to rescue survivors from the first strike and journalists — al-Masri’s friends — who were nearby and rushed to the scene.

Nothing was a “mishap.” It was planned down to the minutest detail.}

Reuters Smears Itself

{But here is where we get to the main problem with CNN’s coverage.

In picking apart Israel’s patently bogus claims, the investigation treats those claims with a seriousness they in no way merit. And worse, it ignores the wider context that damns Israel and makes the investigation itself — any investigation — utterly redundant in terms of determining whether a war crime was committed.

On that matter, there can be no debate. And yet, CNN’s investigation takes as its premise the idea that there are two sides to be considered and settled. That the truth has to be determined. That Israel’s case needs to be weighed.

These are the straws that Western leaders, and the large contingent of genocide apologists in Western professional circles, including journalists, so desperately clutch at.

Because otherwise it would be only too clear that they have been cheerleading — and assisting — a genocide for two years.

The first point is this: An investigation by Israel, or anyone else for that matter, is not needed to establish whether the targeted camera belonged to Hamas. It didn’t because it belonged to Reuters news agency.

The extraordinary contortions made by Reuters to avoid pointing this simple fact out are illustrative of the way media outlets are willing to construct narratives that actually undermine the very thing they are supposed to be engaged in: truth-telling journalism.

Reuters knows the camera position on the stairwell was not being used by Hamas because Reuters was using it for their live feeds. Images of the wrecked camera even show it wired up for broadcast at the time it was hit.

And yet like the rest of the media, Reuters is required to play dumb: it reports Israel’s outright lie that it targeted a “Hamas camera” — and six terrorists alongside it — as if that might be true.

Reuters headline on the story – the only part that most people read – runs: “Initial inquiry says Hamas camera was target of Israeli strike that killed journalists.”

Notice, Reuters does not even put scare-quote marks around the term “Hamas camera” to alert readers to the fact that this claim should be treated with caution, or better still derision.

Nor does the agency include a comment from one of its senior editorial staff disputing Israel’s claim or presenting its own side of the story.

Astonishingly, Reuters instead colludes in smearing itself by entertaining Israel’s claim that its own live-feed camera was being used by Hamas.

Rather than defend its own journalist, it leaves it up to an Israeli military spokesperson to later conclude that al-Masri, Reuters’ journalist, was not the intended “target” — and thereby, presumably, exonerate him of being a terrorist. If only Reuters had done that first.}

I've often warned here of the collaborations of MSMs with our MSCMs. The latter, MSCMs, rarely put journalist out into the field to be called investigative journalist these days. Especially in regards to war scenarios. Their coverage comes primarily from journalist from MSMs and or independent investigative journalist. Especially, in regards to MSCMs, when you have a reporter sitting on a set in front of cameras, calling themselves journalist or especially investigative journalist, it's an absurdity deserving of ludicrously. Their segments are preprepared, narratives and talking points included. And as this article details, that work is often manipulated to fit the narratives and talking points. Especially if it comes from an independent journalist they captured it from that doesn't know it's being used by them.

My time spent on the Ukraine war for 11 years has been riddled with such type of absurdities. I've seen multiple investigative journalist in especially the Donbass regions and also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Very few of them have been western journalist. I have 10 years of observing a multitude of documentaries that have included a Canadian and German journalist, a couple of X American military men, not journalist, independent civilians from the region that chose to cover what was happening in their homeland as armature journalist, and a number of RT journalist covering the war.

The German journalist filmed his own documentary and was heavily berated and threatened by his government, and his documentary banned. I believe it might still be available on youtube. I seen a guy from Texas that went over in 2014 and served with a local militia group until he was wounded. He then became a organizer within the aid distribution coming out of Russia from citizen donors, small companies, and corporations. That citizen volunteers out of Russia would put their lives on the line to deliver throughout those regions. Helped families find their lost loved ones as the chaos of fleeing citizens from the fascist took place, some unable to leave or wouldn't leave their homes. His name was Russell Bentley. They called him Texas, the Donbass Cowboy. He appears in at least 1 RT documentary with a camera crew covering his movements throughout the region. [en.wikipedia.org]

When you've heard of any western "journalist" being in Ukraine, whether it's from a MSCM, MSM, or NPR, it has been staged theater. If they actually were brave enough to go into the war zone, it was in a town, city, or village that was carefully planned out to arrange an organized narrative and talking points. If you think they would actually provided a civilian who would speak outside of those narratives and talking points, you're an idiot. They were chosen ahead of time and likely not a citizen of any of the regions, or they and their family threatened if they said anything closely resembling any sense of dissent. I assure you, very few people in these Russian speaking, cultured, religion following citizenships who have been labeled as {add any type of vulgarly slang here used against another people} are happy to have this fascist scum in their homelands. Outside of the very few who have ventured into the war zones, they exist only from hotels rooms in Kiev. And they are fed the narratives and talking points from the multitude of medias that have been manufactured since 2014 by NGOs, think tanks, and fascist organizations from within the country who hold a significant amount of control in the country. In which they zip that shit back home over the Internet calling it journalism. Lies. Blatant lies of mis/disinformation.

This is a prime example of when I attempt to draw your attention to the fact that MSMs work in deceptions right along with our MSCMs. This is a prime example of a MSCM and MSM collaboratively deceiving their western viewers to fulfill a case of false narratives and talking points.

{But the Israeli spokesperson’s “admission” only deepens the absurdity of Israel’s claims. How was a Reuters camera serving Hamas when it was being operated at the time by a Reuters journalist who was not the target?

Don’t look to Reuters, or CNN, or any Western media for an answer. The mystery will simply be left to permanently cloud our understanding.}

I'll let you go on to read the rest of the article.