Home Examples of HuffPost’s headline manipulation during the Third Intifada

Examples of HuffPost’s headline manipulation during the Third Intifada

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By Jon Sutz, Editor, SaveTheWest.com

As noted in SaveTheWest’s video, we assert that:

(1) HuffPost ignored 94 of the 105 Palestinian terrorist attacks (see our Chronology of these attacks) – meaning that stories of these attacks did not appear on either its front page or World page, its two highest-traffic pages that deal with international news.

(2) Of the 11 Palestinian terror attacks that HuffPost did report, in 9 cases it manipulated the headlines and/or associated imagery in the following ways:

(a) It rewrote the headlines of stories provided by wire services, primarily the AP and Reuters, to remove the distinction between Palestinian terrorist and Jewish victim, or even falsely imply that Israel was the aggressor. Or…

(b) It inserted pictures only of Palestinians, often in sympathetic situations, into the headlines of these stories – stories that describe  Palestinian terrorist attacks on Jews

For reference, here are the two instances in which HuffPost presented accurate and contextual headlines about Palestinian terrorist attacks during the Third Intifada period we examined:

(1) October 18: Arab assailant opens fire on bus station, kills Israeli soldier (screencap; O34 in Chronology)

(2) November 29: Israeli Police Shoot Dead Palestinian Who Stabbed Officer (screencap; N35 on Chronology)

The purpose of this page is to document, or provide references to our documentation of the incidents of manipulation in (2). The examples presented here are by no means all those that occurred, only those that we were able to identify and document.

Contents

The following incidents are presented in chronological order, not order of severity:

Preface: October 6: For its first front-page article about the Third Intifada, HuffPost rewrote a wire service headline to falsely imply that Israel is the aggressor, while sympathizing with Palestinians

Incident 1, October 11: HuffPost turned a wire service story about a heroic Israeli police officer into one that visually elicits sympathy about Palestinian rioters being tear-gassed

Incident 2, October 13: HuffPost rewrote a wire service headline about a Palestinian terrorist rampage that left three Jews dead – and an American Jew clinging to life – into one about generic “unrest,” that was causing Jews and Palestinians to “lose their lives”

Incident 3, October 14: HuffPost left “Palestinian” out of a headline regarding a Palestinian terrorist attack that Israeli police foiled

Incidents 4 & 5, October 16: HuffPost acknowledged Palestinian terrorist attacks, but instead of picture(s) of victims, only featured Palestinians

Incident 6, October 19: HuffPost manipulated a wire service headline to falsely accuse Israeli police, Jews of racism

Incident 7, November 20: HuffPost whitewashed a wire service headline to remove Palestinian terrorism as the cause of a murdered American teenager, into one that implicitly blames Israel

Incidents 8 & 9, November 27: HuffPost changed the picture in wire story headline of 8 IDF soldiers injured by Palestinian terrorists, to one that evokes sympathy for Palestinian


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Preface: October 6: For its first front-page article about the Third Intifada, HuffPost rewrote a wire service headline to falsely imply that Israel is the aggressor, while sympathizing with Palestinians

As demonstrated in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada, up to this point in the Third Intifada, HuffPost had not run a single story on its front page about the frequent Palestinian terrorist attacks on Jews over the previous three weeks, including the murders of Alexander Levlovich, of Rabbi Eitam and his wife Naama Henkin (in front of their four pre-teen children), and of Rabbis Aharon Bennet and Nehemia Lavi Also consult our Chronology for a detailed list of these and other Palestinian terrorist attacks that had been occurring since September 13.

Timeline3

On October 6, the AP published a story that described some of the steps that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government were taking to respond to the escalating Palestinan terrorism campaign. This is the headline that the AP produced and the opening paragraph, and which news organizations around the world ran as-is, including the Los Angeles Daily News, CBSNews.com and others:

Amid unrest in West Bank, Israel demolishes militants’ homes

The Israeli military on Tuesday demolished homes of two Palestinian militants in east Jerusalem, the army’s first concrete steps following a late night Cabinet meeting in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a “strong hand” to quell recent deadly attacks.

06Oct15 LA Daily News AP article re destroying militant homes - callout

HuffPost decided to run the AP story – and to significantly change its headline, in a way that could only result in creating the impression that Israel was taking aggressive action against Palestinians, for no good reason.

Here is how HuffPost played the story on both its front page (screencap) and World page (screencap):

Israel Destroys Palestinian Militants’ Homes After Netanyahu Promises ‘Strong Hand”

10-06-2015 FPHL 12-02 - Israel destroys Pals homes - 1ST MENTION OF 3INTIFADA

As if that manipulated headline – falsely depicting Israel as a malevolent aggressor – wasn’t enough, HuffPost decided to match it with the picture of a sad Palestinian woman amid the wreckage of a building. And that was only the start of HuffPost’s first front-page article about the Third Intifada.

On the story page to which that headline linked, HuffPost featured pictures of (1) an angry Benjamin Netanyahu…

06Oct - MONSTER BIBI

… followed by the following picture, of a wailing Palestinian woman, grieving over the casket of her son, who had been participating in violent riots against Israelis. Note that HuffPost included the details of her plight, and the “victim’s” name, in the caption:

“Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers, including a 13-year-old boy, on Monday. In this photo, the mother of 13-year-old Palestinian Abdel Rahman Abdullah mourns at her son’s funeral on Oct. 6.”

06Oct - WAILING MOTHER OF MURDERER

It is also worth noting that HuffPost had not publicized the names, pictures or stories of any of the five Jews who’d been murdered to this point, or the eight that had been injured, by Palestinian terrorists.

Our investigation further indicated that the vast majority of the photographs that HuffPost inserted into its version of the AP story (aside from home demolitions) were not provided by the AP, by the CBS.com and SFGate.com versions.

Why did HuffPost seek out and insert those pictures – but none of the Jewish victims – if not to falsely insinuate that Israel was acting as a murderous aggressor, and Palestinians were the innocent victims?


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Incident 1, October 11: HuffPost turned a wire service story about a heroic Israeli police officer into one that visually elicits sympathy about Palestinian rioters being tear-gassed

Note: This is item O15 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

On October 11, 2015 an Israeli police officer, Sgt Maj. Moshe Chen, pulled over a driver that was acting suspiciously.  The Palestinian terrorist driver set off one of several explosive devices, which severely injured her, and caused Chen to suffer burns to his face.  It is widely acknowledged that had Chen not acted as he did, this Palestinian terrorist could have maimed or killed dozens of Israeli Jews.

Here is how the Times of Israel played the story:

11Oct ACTUAL pic from ToI

And here’s how Israel National News played the story, and gave credit to Sgt. Maj. Chen:

11Oct15 Hero Israel policeman INN

(1.1) HuffPost ran the story of this Palestinian terrorist attack, but matched it with a picture not of the scene, or of Sgt. Maj. Chen – but instead, of a picture that conveys sympathy for Palestinian rioters.

To its credit, HuffPost gave this story brief, front-page coverage.  As noted below, however, the only picture it chose to run with it was an completely unrelated one, of Palestinian rioters fleeing tear gas thrown by the Israeli police. HuffPost completely ignored the personal story of Officer Chen, and the untold lives his heroism may have saved.

10-11-2015 FPHL 22-13 - Pal WOMAN blows self up(1.2) HuffPost further misdirected the reader’s attention from the ongoing Palestinian terrorist attacks on Jews, and Officer Chen’s injuries, through its caption of this completely unrelated picture.

Note that on the story page, HuffPost captioned this unrelated picture in a way that serves only to (a) elicit sympathy for the Palestinian rioters, and (b) make no mention whatsoever of any of the terrorist acts that Palestinians had been perpetrating for the previous month:

“Palestinians run from tear gas fired by Israeli troops during clashes near Ramallah, West Bank, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015.”

11Oct15 HP tear gas palestinians

Contrast this to the way that HuffPost cheers Palestinians and others for what it implies are heroic deeds:

[slide show coming]


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Incident 2, October 13: HuffPost rewrote a wire service headline about a Palestinian terrorist rampage that left three Jews dead – and an American Jew clinging to life – into one about generic “unrest,” that was causing Jews and Palestinians to “lose their lives”

Note: This is item O22 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

Richard Lakin
Richard Lakin, 76, an American peace activist, murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

On October 13, 2015, two Palestinian terrorists boarded an public bus in Jerusalem. One was armed with a gun and the other with a knife. American peace activist Richard Lakin, 76, was shot in the head and stabbed in the chest, clung to life for two weeks, but succumbed to his wounds on October 27.  Chaim Haviv, 78, was also killed in the attack; his wife, Shoshana, was severely wounded. Also killed was Alon Govberg, 51. As YNet reported, with pictures and videos, fifteen other Israeli Jews were wounded in these attacks, several seriously. One terrorist was killed by police, the second was apprehended.

Click here to read our profile of Mr. Lakin, and see (a) the “news” items that HuffPost chose to run on its front page and World page instead of covering his murder, and (b) how HuffPost’s decision in this regard contrasts to the way it covers Palestinians, terrorists, and others who meet misfortune.

Later on October 13, the Jerusalem Post published the video a Palestinian terrorist running down several Jews with his car, then getting out with a meat cleaver, and hacking a rabbi to death.  Read our profile of the victim, Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky – and the fact that HuffPost ignored his story – here:

SaveTheWest’s investigation reveals that HuffPost chose to publish a Reuters account of these murders, but then significantly altered both the headline and the content of the article, in a way that could only obliterate the distinction between terrorist and victim.

(2.1) Here is the wire story from Reuters about these attacks, which HuffPost chose to publish:

On October 13, Reuters published the following story:

“Palestinian ‘Day of Rage’ attacks kill three: Israeli police”

13Oct15 Reuters source story - video of Rabbi murder

The opening sentence of the Reuters story – just beneath the video of the murder of Rabbi Krishevksy – reads (emphasis added):

Palestinian men armed with knives and a gun killed at least three people and wounded several others in a string of attacks in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, police said, on a “Day of Rage” declared by Palestinian groups.

Clearly, HuffPost’s editors knew that this was Palestinian terrorists who were murdering and maiming Jews.

(2.2) HuffPost rewrote the Reuters-provided headline to remove any indication of who was attacking whom.

HuffPost published the Reuters story, on both its front page and World page.  Yet note how it fundamentally changed the copy of the headline, to remove any indication that Palestinian terrorists were murdering Jews – and imply instead that each side was attacking the other:

Israel and Palestine: Worst unrest in years”

10-13-2015 FPHL 22-06 - UNREST

Note also that instead of matching its altered headline with a picture of even one of the Jewish victims, or a crime scene, it instead chose to match it with a picture of a Palestinian rioter.

HuffPost clearly knew what this story was about, because it put the actual nature of it in the URL, and the sub-headline:

13Oct -- 1st story ISRAEL PALESTINIAN UNREST storypage - callout

(2.3) HuffPost then ratcheted up its betrayal of the truth, by creating a splash headline that explicitly implied that both sides were responsible for this “unrest”

Yet on the evening of October 13, long after the above stories were published (Israel is 7 hours ahead of EST), HuffPost ignored all of them, and instead published this splash headline at the top of its World page:

13 WPHL 1st SPLASH - UNREST - VIOLENCE -callout

Note the wording HuffPost employed for the headline and sub-headlines:

“Unrest…” “Turmoil…” “Numerous Israelis and Palestinians have lost their lives in… attacks…”

If one only got their news from HuffPost, they would have absolutely no means of discerning from this headline who was killing whom, or why.

(2.4) Contrast HuffPost’s actions in this case, to the ease with which it explicitly assigns blame to Jews, even when it knows (or should know) the accusations are untrue, or cannot be proven true.

[TO BE TURNED INTO SLIDE SHOW]

The following are screencaps of news stories from HuffPost’s front page in recent years.

01Mar Israeli settlers RAMPAGE callout04Aug15 -- JEWISH EXTREMIST ARRESTED - VICTIM FACE - calloutThe following was the only original news story that HuffPost wrote about any individual attacker and victim during the period we examined during the Third Intifada (Sept. 13 – Nov. 30).  And yet, as we document here, it is all based on (a) what could well be a staged propaganda video, and (b) one radical leftist, pro-Palestinian rabbi’s assumption that his (masked) attacker was a “Jewish extremist.”

10-23-2015 FPHL 22-22 suspected jewish extremist callout

HuffPost gave the following “news” story top coverage and promotions – yet it either knew, or should have known (a) that it was untrue – or could not be proven true, and (b) that this “seasoned” journalist had already been punished for anti-Israel bias.

fp-teaser-callout-seasoned reporter

We’re unaware of any other incident in which HuffPost referred to a group of members of any other religious or ethnic minority with a subhuman, animalistic term, such as a “pack,” as it did in this case of Jews.  That aside, as the Huff-Watch blog documented here, the story was false, as HuffPost either knew or had reason to know.  This “pack of orthodox Jews” didn’t “chase off” Gov. Romney, as it alleged in its story page – they were actually supporters who only wanted to get their pictures taken with him.

08Aug FPHL Romney chased by PACK OF JEWS callout


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Incident 3, October 14: HuffPost left “Palestinian” out of a headline regarding a Palestinian terrorist attack that Israeli police foiled

(3.1) HuffPost ran a headline that indicated the Israeli police stopped this attack – but either removed, or failed to indicate the fact that the perpetrator was a Palestinian terrorist.

On October 14, HuffPost ran this story on its front page and World page:

“Israeli police says it foiled stabbing attack in Jerusalem”

10-14-2015 FPHL 22-04 -IDF foiled stabbing - by WHOM

If one only got their news from HuffPost, and given the fact that HuffPost had all but ignored the “wave of deadly Palestinian shooting and stabbing attacks that have created panic across [Israel],” described in this story, they would have no idea who was the perpetrator of this attempted stabbing attack.  Was it a Jewish hoodlum?  Was it a Christian – or a Bedouin – or an atheist – or….?

(3.2) HuffPost’s own story page – containing an AP wire article – explicitly identified who the perpetrator was.

The HuffPost story page to which that headline led reads, in part (starting with the opening sentence; emphasis added):

“The Israeli military began deploying hundreds of troops in cities across the country on Wednesday to assist police forces in countering a wave of deadly Palestinian shooting and stabbing attacks that have created panic across the country.” […]

“In new violence Wednesday [Ed. October 14], Israeli police said they shot and killed an Arab man after he pulled out a knife and attempted to stab them. His identity was not immediately known.”

12-11-2015 FPHL 01-32 - callout 112-11-2015 FPHL 01-32 - callout 2

(3.3) Contrast this decision – to omit the fact that this was a Palestinian terrorist attack – to HuffPost’s knee-jerk willingness to identify Jews as “attackers” in its headlines, even when it knows the story is untrue, or cannot be proven true.

01Mar Israeli settlers RAMPAGE callout04Aug15 -- JEWISH EXTREMIST ARRESTED - VICTIM FACE - calloutThe following was the only original news story that HuffPost wrote about any individual attacker and victim during the period we examined during the Third Intifada (Sept. 13 – Nov. 30).  And yet, as we document here, it is all based on (a) what could well be a staged propaganda video, and (b) one radical leftist, pro-Palestinian rabbi’s assumption that his (masked) attacker was a “Jewish extremist.”

10-23-2015 FPHL 22-22 suspected jewish extremist callout

HuffPost gave the following “news” story top coverage and promotions – yet it either knew, or should have known (a) that it was untrue – or could not be proven true, and (b) that this “seasoned” journalist had already been punished for anti-Israel bias.

fp-teaser-callout-seasoned reporter

We’re unaware of any other incident in which HuffPost referred to a group of members of any other religious or ethnic minority with a subhuman, animalistic term, such as a “pack,” as it did in this case of Jews.  That aside, as the Huff-Watch blog documented here, the story was false, as HuffPost either knew or had reason to know.  This “pack of orthodox Jews” didn’t “chase off” Gov. Romney, as it alleged in its story page – they were actually supporters who only wanted to get their pictures taken with him.

08Aug FPHL Romney chased by PACK OF JEWS callout


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Incidents 4 & 5, October 16: HuffPost acknowledged Palestinian terrorist attacks, but instead of picture(s) of victims, only featured Palestinians

Note: These are items O27 & O28 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

Ed.: Admittedly, this is a comparatively minor incident of HuffPost’s headline manipulation.  It is included here because shows the extent to which HuffPost will default to showing only pictures of angry/sad Palestinians after their terrorist attacks, instead of including any of the readily-accessible images of damage and Jewish suffering that results from these specific attacks.

Incident 4: As reported on NPR.org, on October 16, a gang of Palestinan terrorists set fire to Joseph’s Tomb, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.

Incident 5: Also on October 16, in a separate incident reported by the DailyMail (UK), a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a photojournalist, stabbed an Israeli soldier. A second soldier shot and killed him.

These were two separate terrorist attacks, which HuffPost could have chosen to cover individually, which is why they are listed as separate items in our Chronology and here.  Instead, HuffPost chose to publish an article that mentions both separate attacks.

(4-5.1) How the Reuters source article that HuffPost chose to publish presented these attacks

The Reuters article covered both attacks in one story, which included a video report at top:

“Palestinians set fire to Jewish shrine; Israeli soldier stabbed”

16Oct15 - Reuters story - torch of Josephs Tomb

The Reuters story video included some of the dozens of videos and pictures of the scene of the attack on the Israeli soldier, and of Joseph’s Tomb on fire, that were available at the time HuffPost published its version of the Reuters article:

16Oct15 - Pal stab IDF soldier pics16Oct15 - Josephs Tomb on fire pics

(4-5.2) HuffPost ran the Reuters story, but with an unrelated picture, instead of one of a victim or crime scene(s).

HuffPost published the story of Palestinian terrorists’ attack on Joseph’s Tomb on its front page and World page.  Note that while the headline copy was accurate, HuffPost chose to match it with an unrelated, generic picture of Palestinian rock-throwers (whom it has depicted as chic “rock stars”), instead of a picture of either victim (a) the injured Israeli soldier (or the crime scene), or (b) Joseph’s Tomb while ablaze:

“Palestinians set fire to Jewish shrine; Israeli soldier stabbed”

10-16-2015 FPHL 22-13 - pals torch josephs tomb FP

(4-5.3) Contrast this editorial decision, with the efforts to which HuffPost goes to give sympathetic coverage to Palestinians who are victims of violence

A sampling [SLIDE SHOW COMING]

A holy Christian site that was vandalized by what HuffPost identified as “Jewish extremists”; note that the photo HuffPost chose to use was of the site that was vandalized, and an implicitly distraught Christian.

31May13 Jewish extremists vandalize Christian holy site

A Palestinian home that had been destroyed by suspected Jewish terrorists; note the burned walls and beds:

01Mar Israeli settlers RAMPAGE calloutFrom HuffPost’s story page about the “suspected Jewish extremist” attack on a “human rights rabbi”:

23Oct FPHL JEWISH EXTREMIST ATTACKS - storypage faces crying for dead Palestinian

FPHL-callout-IDF-hamas rocket makerbloody304Oct -Palestinian killed FPHL-callout


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Incident 6, October 19: HuffPost manipulated a wire service headline to falsely accuse Israeli police, Jews of racism

Note: This is item O34 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

On October 18, A Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife and a pistol entered the central bus station in Beer Sheva, shot and murdered Israeli soldier Sgt. Omri Levy, 23, and injured ten civilians and police officers.  The terrorist then grabbed Sgt. Levy’s gun and started shooting. Police officers shot and killed the terrorist.

An Eritrean migrant, Habtom Zerhom, 29, was mistaken for a second terrorist and shot by a security guard, then was beaten by a mob, and later died of his wounds.

The AP published a story about the accidental killing of Mr. Zerhom.  The Los Angeles Times played the story accurately, with the headline provided by the AP:

Eritrean mistaken for terrorist dies after being shot by Israeli guard, attacked by mob

The opening copy:

An Eritrean migrant shot by an Israeli security guard and then attacked by bystanders who mistook him for an assailant in a deadly bus station attack has died of his wounds, Israeli hospital officials said Monday.

19Oct LATimes played story straight - callout

HuffPost published the AP story, as well – but it decided to rewrite the headline for it, so that it would (a) effectively accused Israel and Jews of racism – and (b) afford Mr. Zerhom the personalized, graphic sympathy that it denied Jewish victims of Palestinian terrorism throughout the Third Intifada.  Here is how HuffPost played the AP story on its front page and World page:

Asylum seeker killed by Israeli mob ‘just because of his skin color’

10-19-2015 FPHL 23-13 - Eretrian shot by accidentHere is HuffPost’s story page:

10-19-2015 FPHL 23-13 - Eretrian shot by accident - storypage

Why did HuffPost so radically alter the AP’s provided headline, to essentially insinuate that Israeli Jews are racist murderers – instead of depicting this as the tragic accident it was?  And why did it choose to insert a picture of Mr. Zerhom into its headline and story page – an act that it has denied every Jewish victim of the Third Intifada?  Those are questions that only HuffPost can answer.

There was, however, one other website that radically altered the AP-provided headline to incite hatred against Israeli Jews, and accuse them of racism, in regards to this tragic incident.  The notorious neo-Nazi, white supremacist website StormFront ran the following altered version of the AP story headline, concerning Mr. Zerham’s accidental death:

Israel: African shot and lynched to death by furious Jewish mob

19Oct STORMFRONT EMULATED HUFFPOST re Eretrian accidentally killed

Do HuffPost’s advertisers know that they are financially enabling it to globally spread the kind of libelous anti-Semitic hatred that is typically employed by neo-Nazi white supremacists? 


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Incident 7, November 20: HuffPost whitewashed a wire service headline to remove Palestinian terrorism as the cause of a murdered American teenager, into one that implicitly blames Israel

Note: This is item N20 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

Ezra Schwartz small
Ezra Schwartz, 18, a few months before he was murdered.

On November 18, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with a submachine gun at cars in a traffic jam at the Alon Shvut junction, south of Jerusalem, shooting nine Jews, and killing three.  The victims were identified as Ezra Schwartz, 18, an American citizen from Sharon, Massachusetts, and Yaakov Don, 49, of Alon Shvut, and Shadi Arafa, 40, of Hebron, in the disputed territory. Four others were lightly wounded in the attack, before the terrorist was shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

Schwartz came to Israel as part of a program in which young people come to Israel for nine months of volunteer work.  Read our profile of Ezra, and how HuffPost subverted the story about him and his murder, here.

On November 23, 2015 the New England Patriots, of whom Ezra was a huge fan, devoted a moment of silence to him, by name, and to reflect on his murder, at the hands of terrorists:

(7.1) Reuters and other news sources played the story straight

On November 19, Reuters ran the following story:

“Five dead in Palestinian attacks in Tel Aviv, West Bank – Israel”

Reuters source article - PALESTINIAN ATTACKS

The website Heavy.com had an extensive, picture-rich profile of Ezra (caution: graphic imagery), the murder scene, and the outpouring of sympathy from his friends and loved ones:

19Nov15 Heavy photo essay on Ezra murder

Heavy also documented the fact that Hamas was publicly cheering Ezra’s murder as a “heroic” act:

19Nov15 Heavy photo essay on Ezra murder - Hamas cheers

(7.2) HuffPost ran the Reuters story , but changed “Palestinian attacks” to “Israel attacks”

On November 20, HuffPost published the Reuters story, and promoted it on its front page and World page.  Yet look at how radically it altered Reuters’ headline, on both pages:

“American Teen Among 5 Killed In Israel Attacks”

11-20-2015 FPHL 05-52 - Am teen killed - by whom - no namesWhy did HuffPost remove the “Palestinian attacks” copy from the Reuters headline – and instead insert “in Israel attacks”?  If one only got their news from HuffPost, as demonstrated in Incidents 1-4 and our Chronology, they would only know that nondescript “violence” and “unrest” was occurring in the region, in which “Israelis and Palestinians are losing their lives.”  Atop that foundation of unawareness, if that person saw this headline, would they have any indication whatsoever who killed this American teen?  Absolutely not.

(7.3) HuffPost knew Ezra’s name at the time it published this story – as its own website proves.

Here is a zoomed-in screencap of the page on which HuffPost published the Reuters story, on November 20; note that the URL mentions Ezra by name:

20Nov AM KILLED IN ISRAEL - storypage callout3

As in the other Incidents listed above, HuffPost clearly knew who was attacking whom (in general, and in this attack), and the name of the American victim, for it was all described in its own story page (emphasis added):

A Palestinian fatally stabbed two people in a Tel Aviv office building and three other people were killed in an attack in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Israeli police and the army said.  In the latest attack near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank, a police commander said a Palestinian drove along the shoulder of the main road and shot at crawling traffic, killing three people and wounding others. […] Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld… said an American citizen was one of three people killed. […]

The American was identified as Ezra Schwartz, 18, who was studying in Israel, according to a Facebook post by the American Jewish Committee. CBS’s Boston affiliate said Schwartz was from Sharon, Massachusetts.

Yet HuffPost chose to alter the headline that Reuters provided with this story, to remove any indication of the fact that this nameless “American teen” was the latest Jew to be murdered in the more than two months of practically nonstop Palestinian terrorist attacks, 90%+ of which it ignored, or, as indicated above, whitewashed to indicate was only nondescript “violence” or “unrest.”

(7.4) HuffPost also did not include a single picture of Ezra on its story page.

Even though by the time HuffPost published its story, there were dozens of pictures of Ezra available on the Internet, it included not a single picture of Ezra on its story page – or of the crime scene, or anything.  Take a look for yourself; this screencap was taken the evening of November 20:

11-20-2015 FPHL 05-49

(7.5) Contrast HuffPost’s treatment of this story, with the personalized, graphic, sympathetic treatment it provides to Palestinians and others – in both headlines and story pages.

[Format into slide show]

In contrast to the whitewashed, dehumanized coverage HuffPost gave to Ezra’s murder, consider the prominent, personalized, sympathetic treatment it gave to another American teen who was killed in the Israeli region:

“AMERICAN KILLED IN FLOTILLA RAID”

Furkan Doğan World Page splash

And here is the page to which that splash headline linked:

“Furkan Dogan, U.S. Citizen, Killed In Israeli Flotilla Raid”:

Furkan Doğan World Page splash storypage

What makes this contrast even more notable is the fact that unlike Ezra, an innocent civilian who was riding in a car when a Palestinian terrorist shot him, this “American” teen, Furkan Doğan:

  • Only spent the first two years of his life in the U.S.; the rest of his existence was spent in Turkey
  • Claimed in his diary, to his brother, and to others on board the flotilla, hours before it approached the Gaza coast, that his objective was to die as “a martyr” – a claim also made by the militant Islamists on the ship who attempted to murder the IDF soldiers. The fact that he was shot at close range several times indicates that he fulfilled his mission, was part of the gang that attacked and tried to kill Israeli soldiers, and was only killed while they defended themselves.

Yet as in many other well-documented instances, HuffPost provided sympathetic, personalized, top coverage to those who perpetrate or support terrorist acts to advance the interests of radical Islamists – while ignoring, whitewashing and/or downplaying their victims, as in the case of Ezra Schwartz.

Also, here’s sampling of the personalized, graphic, sympathetic coverage that HuffPost provides to stories about Palestinians who meet misfortunate:

HPM dalu-familyFPHL-callout-IDF-hamas rocket maker 20July11 WPHL Marwan Barghouti - LEADER04Oct -Palestinian killed FPHL-callout18May13 WPHL weepy Palestinian refugees

(7.5) So what kinds of “news” stories did HuffPost decide were more worthy of its graphic, sympathetic treatment in the days after Ezra’s murder, than he was?

A sampling, from Section (4) on our Ezra Schwartz page:

On November 21, HuffPost decided these abused puppies deserved to have their faces and stories told on its front page; Ezra and his murder… not:

11-21-2015 Abused Puppies - no ezra - top


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Incidents 8 & 9, November 27: HuffPost changed the picture in wire story headline of 8 IDF soldiers injured by Palestinian terrorists, to one that evokes sympathy for Palestinians

Note: These are items N33 & N34 in our Chronology of Palestinian Attacks During the Third Intifada

Ed.: Admittedly, this is a comparatively minor incident of HuffPost’s headline manipulation.  It is included here because shows the extent to which HuffPost will default to showing only pictures of angry/sad Palestinians after their terrorist attacks, instead of including any of the readily-accessible images of damage and Jewish suffering that results from these specific attacks.

Incident 8: On November 27, as reported by the by the Times of Israel, a Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into six Israeli soldiers, leaving them wounded. The terrorist was shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

Incident 9: Later that day, in a separate incident reported in the Jerusalem Post, another Palestinian rammed his car into two Israeli soldiers, leaving them wounded as well.  As in the other incident, the terrorist was shot and killed.

These were two separate terrorist attacks, which HuffPost could have chosen to cover individually, which is why they are listed as separate items in our Chronology and here.  Instead, HuffPost chose to publish an article that mentions both separate attacks.

(8-9.1) How the AP source article that HuffPost chose to publish presented these attacks

The AP published the following story, covering both attacks.  Note that the AP included only one picture in the story, at the top, of the crime scene:

“2 Palestinians killed after attacking Israeli troops”

27Nov15 AP version ramming full page

(8-9.2) HuffPost presented the headline copy accurately, but instead of matching it with a picture of the crime scene, or the victims, inserted a picture of Palestinian rioters carrying a terrorist’s corpse.

HuffPost published the AP version of the story, and promoted it on its front page and World page, via the following headline and image:

“2 Palestinians Shot Dead After Ramming Cars Into Israeli Troops”

11-27-2015 FPHL 23-42 - 2 pals shot dead stabbing FPNote the picture HuffPost chose to match with this headline – Palestinian rioters carrying the corpse of what one can only assume was a terrorist.  Why, on a story about Palestinian terrorists attempting to murder eight Israeli soldiers, whom they left wounded, would HuffPost seek out and run an unrelated picture in its headline that evokes sympathy for these Palestinians – instead of for the victims who were left injured, in hospitals?

HuffPost continued this explicit effort to evoke sympathy for Palestinians, by inserting another unrelated picture into the story page – this time, of weeping Palestinian females:

27Nov HP storypage - weepy Palestinians

Only at the very bottom of the page did HuffPost run the AP’s crime scene photo, a distant picture without the faces or names of an of the Jewish victims.

Why would HuffPost seek out and insert pictures into this story that (a) have nothing to do with it, and (b) can only have the effect of eliciting sympathy for Palestinians, including one presumed terrorist, instead of the Jewish victims?

(8-9.3) Contrast this to how HuffPost treats stories in which Palestinians are on the receiving end of violence (slide shows below):

 


 

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