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Anatomy of a Media Hoax

By Brian C. Ledbetter · Friday, January 9. 2009 14:13
Bob Owens takes CNN to task for publishing heartwarming propaganda without running down the facts, first:

As the IDF campaign in Gaza continues, so do attempts by Hamas and Hamas sympathizers to use the western media as an often willing propaganda tool.

Yesterday, media critic Charles Johnson commented on Little Green Footballs about a 2-minute CNN story that purported to show the death of a Palestinian child in Gaza that was captured on film by his brother.

The video purports to show a truly horrific series of events. A boy and his friend are said to be struck down are struck down while they play, deliberately targeted by an Israeli drone aircraft armed with missiles. As doctors frantically perform CPR, the child apparently dies in front of his horrified brother, who continues filming. The boy is taken home, where he is cradled in the arms of a grieving family member. The video then cuts to the roof of the family home, where a family member shows where he claims the Israeli missile strike took the life of the two boys. The video then shows the family taking the boy to a local cemetary in a shroud, where he is to be laid to rest.

It is a truly horrible story, and one no doubt played out by heart-broken families on both sides of this conflict far too many times.

The only significant difference in this story, however, it that it is an obvious fake, featuring a series of images that any credible news editor should have quickly recognized.


Be sure to click over for the detailed, frame-by-frame commentary. This is the type of editing that the media is supposed to be doing before running with dramatic stories during a time of war.

One wonders why CNN didn't bother to do as much.

Update: CNN claims the video is real, thanks to the in-depth investigation (and, no doubt, the double pinkie promise) provided by... the Palestinian media representative, and officials at the Hamas-run hospital!

I'm so glad we have such professional journalists in this world to look after what the public knows.

Incidentally, CNN doesn't actually bother saying which bloggers are disputing the report. Which would tend to deprive their readers from hearing the other side of the story.

Professionalism, indeed.

Update: Lawhawk has more.

Update: This appears to be the official "World News & Features" website. Does anybody else find it funny that CNN considers a company that declares "HAMAS ALLIES PREPARE FOR RENEWED CONFLICT" is somehow a credible news source?
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Here is what a handful of random people think about this article. But first, the fine print:
The opinions expressed here, even where approved for display, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website, the management, or any other entity or organization, with the exception of the Vast Zionist Conspiracy. Those opinions we represent in style, yo. Please keep the language in these comments clean, as this is intended to be a family-friendly, work-friendly website. Comments not compliant with this policy will be edited for content where necessary. Abusive or otherwise illegal comments will be reported to the proper authorities, up to and including the aforementioned Vast Zionist Conspiracy. The Management cannot and will not be held responsible for commenters making a spectacle of themselves, even if The Management are the said commenters in question. In other words, don't take yourself so seriously, folks. We're all here to discuss the news, and more importantly, to have fun. Now go get yourself into some OCD treatment program—you obviously need it if you actually read all of this mess.

captainfish on 2009-01-09 15:52 #1
*Aren't these the two boys that were killed by an errant Hamas rocket last week?

And, yeah, obvious fake as what brother would video his younger brother in a hospital? What father, especially an Islamic one, would sit silently and not HOWL like a banshee?

Wouldn't there be a hole in the top of their house?
Reply  
DMartyr on 2009-01-09 16:33 #2
*I think if Palestinians had made "Plan 9 From Outer Space", there would be idiot liberals panicked that we were being invaded...
Reply  
captainfish on 2009-01-09 23:50 #3
*From CNN comment taken from LawHawk:

""It's absolute nonsense," Paul Martin, co-owner of World News and Features, said of accusations leveled by bloggers at videographer Ashraf Mashharawi.

"He's a man of enormous integrity and would never get involved with any sort of manipulation of images, let alone when the person dying is his own brother," Martin said. "I know the whole family. I know them very well. ... [Mashharawi] is upset and angry that anyone would think of him having done anything like this. ... This is ridiculous. He's independent."

Raafat Hamdouna, administrative director at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said Friday that "Mahmoud Khalil Mashharawi, a 12-year-old, was brought to the hospital, and he was breathing, but he was hit in the head and all over his body by shrapnel. He died later in the hospital. He was treated by the Norwegian team. When he was brought in, he was breathing. The team did their best to save him. I am not really sure if they even tried to rush him to the surgery room, because he was badly hurt.""

First off, CNN is saying this about a member of Hamas, a known murderous terrorist organization that CNN takes at their word. How many media stories do you read, "Hamas said. Hamas told us"

If a 12 year old child was "rushed" into the ER with shrapnel all over his body, wouldn't the people be more hurried? Shouldn't they be working on the kid instead of hamming it up to the cameras? Also, where are the nurses? Is it just 2 men docs? I think the family might have a case for negligent care.

Also, they believe Hamas when they were told that this kid, (wait where is the cousin that was also hit? Why wasn't he there as well?), playing on his roof with his cousin during an outbreak of war was hit by alot of shrapnel.

Except, didn't you only see one blood stain around the chest area? There was no blood stain anywhere else on the body.

So, this kid was hit by shrapnel and they didn't even bother to try and remove the shrapnel? And as others have pointed out, The docs were not even covered in any bit of blood. A hole in the chest would have really, really bled out. there would be blood all over the sheet from his many shrapnel wounds.

This man is immensely angry that people think his video is a fraud, but is perfectly ok with making a video of his dying brother. Where was he when his brother was on the roof during a war?
Reply  
Hew on 2009-01-10 01:12 #4
*Mads Gilbert, the caucasian doctor featured in the video, is a world reknown professor of Emergency medicine. He has authored a book on how to treat landmine victims in war-zone environments, and is considered one of the leading experts in the world in this field. His book (Save Lives, save Limbs) was highly praised in the Emergency Medical Journal, a subsidiary of the Britih Medical Journal.

Doctor Gilbert certainly has a reputation to take care of in the world community of emergency medicine.

I challenge anybody to expose Gilbert as a fake to the Emergency medicine community. His reputation will guarantee that an exposure of the alleged fake will see publication in the world’s most distinguished medical journals.

The fact is that none of you has a clue as to what you are talking about.
Reply  
Taqiyyotomist on 2009-01-10 17:08 #5
*Hew,
The argument you present is a strawman. Nobody is questioning the medical credentials of Gilbert.
Reply  

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