Mediawatch Media in the middle of Gaza claims and counterclaims
Major media organisations all over the world are copping criticism for the way they're reporting what's happening in Gaza and Israel. Mediawatch asks BBC news boss Jonathan Munro how they're handling it - even when it's coming from the UK's own government.
Major media organisations all over the world are copping criticism for the way they're reporting what's happening in Gaza and Israel. Mediawatch asks BBC news boss Jonathan Munro how they're handling it - even when it's coming from the UK's own government.
"Palestinian health officials in Gaza say hundreds of people have been killed in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. They're blaming an Israeli strike on the hospital. But the Israel Defense Forces said an initial investigation shows the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch."
That was how RNZ's news at 8am last Tuesday reported the single deadliest incident of this conflict so far - and likely to be the deadliest one in all of the five times Israel and Hamas have fought over Gaza so far.
The Israeli Defense Force also singled out Islamic Jihad for the atrocity - but the absence of hard evidence put the media reporting it in a difficult position.
Reporting those claims and counterclaims creates confusion among the audience. It's also stoked the anger of those objecting to reporters' choice of words.
CNN's Clarissa Ward, for example, was criticised heavily on social media for mentioning the Israeli Defense Force claims - and then expressing doubt about them at the same time.
A video showing a pro-Palestinian protester calling Clarissa Ward "a puppet" has gone viral on social media. So did another falsely accusing her of faking a rocket strike.
Her CNN colleague Anderson Cooper was also criticised online for referring to a huge civilian loss of life during the live report from Tel Aviv in Israel and repeating himself, but then without the word "civilian."
Among those who, alongside expert investigators, tried to sift the available evidence and cut through the information war was Alex Thompson, correspondent for UK broadcaster Channel Four.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyppmRvcwzY
"Israel and Hamas can tweet what they like. The truth of what happened here requires independent expert investigation -- not happening," was Alex Thompson's bleak conclusion.
"Any doubt is due to a fierce information war that in truth matters little to the victims of the Gaza hospital tragedy," another British correspondent - ITV Jonathan Irvine - said on Newshub at 6 last Tuesday.
At times, broadcasters have used the wrong words and given audiences the wrong idea. …