NBC Uses Dubious Propaganda Images from Gaza War
During the recent war in Gaza, NBC News used two images of which definitely one and possibly both qualify as deceptive propaganda against Israel's war effort.
The first example is the infamous image of a child who was killed by shrapnel from a rocket fired out of Gaza by the terrorist group Hamas, but which some news outlets, including CNN, attributed to an Israeli airstrike early on.
The Friday, November 16, NBC Nightly News, also used the image in a report by Richard Engel. The NBC correspondent did not state which side had caused the child's death, as he merely informed viewers that the child had been "killed moments earlier," but he never followed up to clarify that it was a Hamas rocket, and not Israel airstrikes, that was responsible.
And on Tuesday, November 20, Engel used an image of a teddy bear lying in a crater after an Israeli airstrike in reports on both the Today show and on the NBC Nightly News. Without noting that photographers in the region have a history of placing toys amid debris to produce more dramatic images, the NBC correspondent matter of factly asserted in the Today show report that "one of their teddy bears still lies in a crater" as he recounted that two children had supposdly been killed.
The NBC Nightly News showed the image as Engel mentioned that two children were reported killed.
Below are both video and transcripts of relevant portions of the Friday, November 16, NBC Nightly News, the Tuesday, November 20, NBC Today show, and the Tuesday, November 20, NBC Nightly News:
#From the Friday, November 16, NBC Nightly News:
RICHARD ENGEL: Visiting Gaza today, the Egyptian prime minister, a show of support that would never have happened under Mubarak.
"Egypt, Egypt the revolution will spare no effort to stop this aggression," he said. He held a child killed, according to Gaza medical officials, moments earlier.
[PHOTOGRAPH OF PRIME MINISTER HOLDING BODY OF CHILD]
(...)
#From the Tuesday, November 20, Today show on NBC:
ENGEL: A truce may be coming, but the destruction in Gaza hasn't even slowed down. This was the main branch of the only bank that distributed funds from the Hamas government.
Israel says, right now, that the reason it's carrying out these attacks is because the rockets are still coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don't think, I don't think that a rocket comes from this building.
ENGEL: Israel targeted the bank overnight, along with some 10 homes of alleged Palestinian militants. In this one, two children were killed this morning. One of their teddy bears still lies in a crater.
[PHOTOGRAPH OF TEDDY BEAR LYING ON GROUND]
(...)
#From the Tuesday, November 20, NBC Nightly News:
ENGEL: A flurry of violence in Gaza today. Israel bombed Hamas's main bank overnight and a half dozen houses of militant commanders this morning. In this one, killing a suspected militant and his two young sons.
[PHOTOGRAPH OF TEDDY BEAR LYING ON GROUND]
