The PBS News Hour’s bizarre post-October 7 enmity toward Israel has blared bright the last few days, eager to portray Israel, fighting for existence against a soulless enemy, Hamas, as a cruel invader purposely starving Gaza’s infants. This is the "public television" that claims to be a public service.
PBS’s coverage of late has been guilty of bias by omission, spewing phony figures and hunger anecdotes from the Hamas-controlled “Health Ministry” entity -- while usually leaving out the Hamas affiliation. References to the hostages still cruelly held by Hamas were sparse.
One would think the New York Times publishing mortifying misinformation (a front-page photo on Friday of a “starving” child in Gaza who was actually suffering an unrelated medical condition) would inject a little humility into the legacy press’s assumptions of starving children in Gaza.
Guest host Lisa Desjardins opened Saturday’s News Weekend by leaving off the fact that the terrorist group controls the Gaza Health Ministry while skipping mention of the twenty or so hostages assumed to still be alive, being held by Hamas.
Lisa Desjardins: A pivotal moment for lives and the conflict in the Middle East as deaths from hunger rise in Gaza today, the Israeli military announced it will begin airdrops of aid and will open more humanitarian corridors to bring in food. But the U.N. and aid groups have criticized airdrops as inadequate and dangerous. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that in the last day, five people died of malnutrition and starvation, including a baby girl. She's one of 85 children to die of malnutrition over the last three weeks, the ministry said. Death also came from above. At least 42 people in Gaza were killed by gunfire and airstrikes, according to Gaza health officials.
Desjardins again left off the Hamas label Sunday and only mentioned the hostages once.
Desjardins: All this comes amid growing international outrage over starvation and deteriorating conditions on the ground. That includes areas in Gaza where Israel continues strikes. Gaza health officials said at least 38 died in those attacks in the last day, including many seeking aid…..
Monday’s episode featured producer Deema Zein narrating a report from Gaza where “Daily funerals seem more plentiful than food.” Zein at least mentioned both Hamas and the hostages Hamas still holds, if they are still alive: “But Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says their focus is the release of hostages held by Hamas.”
Tuesday brought both omission and admission from the show’s co-hosts.
Geoff Bennett: More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas terror attacks kicked off the war with Israel some 21 months ago. That's according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says more than two dozen people were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight.
At least Bennett acknowledged Hamas terror launched the war. His colleague Amna Nawaz added the “Hamas” qualifier to her own “health ministry” citation amid the usual emotionally biased delivery.
Amna Nawaz: ….a leading food crisis group is now warning of widespread famine in Gaza as deaths from starvation rise....But it's not just strikes that are killing Gazans. They're also dying of starvation amid a near-total aid blockade by Israel since March, among them, 5-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died of malnutrition a few days ago….Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says, of the 150 Gazans who have died of starvation since the war began, 88 have been children….
And on Wednesday, Nawaz led her news brief with more from the “health authorities” who claimed “Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 46 people overnight and into today, many of them while seeking aid.” Eventually Nawaz also referred to “Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry” while making another unverified claim against Israel.
