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August 30, 2006

Not the Hole Truth

More on the Red Cross Ambulance Fraud

by Tom Gross

While politicians in most countries, particularly in Europe,
continue to swallow the frauds and fabrications of the
mainstream western media about Israel, at least one leading
politician elsewhere, Australian foreign minister Alexander
Downer, has spoken out.

Addressing the conference of Australian newspaper publishers
in Brisbane earlier this week, Downer criticized media for
the now numerous documented instances of misreporting of the
recent conflict between Israel and Hizbullah.

These included the claim that Israeli aircraft intentionally
fired missiles that hit two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances
performing rescue operations. Respected news outlets giving
widespread credence to this piece of Hizbullah propaganda
included The New York Times, Time Magazine, NBC News, the
BBC, ITV News, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The Los
Angeles Times, The Age (Australia), Le Monde, and newspapers
and TV stations throughout Europe and Asia.

For extra measure, Britain's ITV news added in its report on
the fabricated incident that Israel had "committed war
crimes."

The New York Times ran a shot of a supposedly dead Lebanese
civilian, only for later pictures to show him back on his
feet.

Kofi Annan was among those that condemned Israel based on
these misguided press reports.

AUSTRALIAN FM ON THE "DISHONESTY IN THE REPORTING OUT OF
LEBANON"

Australian foreign minister Downer told the conference:

"What concerns me greatly is the evidence of dishonesty in
the reporting out of Lebanon. For example, a Reuters
photographer was forced to resign after doctoring images to
exaggerate the impact of Israeli air attacks. There were the
widely-reported claims that Israel had bombed deliberately a
Red Cross ambulance."

"In subsequent weeks, the world has discovered those
allegations do not stand up to even the most rudimentary
scrutiny. After closer study of the images of the damage to
the ambulance, it is beyond serious dispute that this
episode has all the makings of a hoax. Yet some of the
world's most prestigious media outlets, including some of
those represented here today, ran that story as fact -
unchallenged, unquestioned. Similarly, there has been the
tendency to report every casualty on the Lebanese side of
the conflict as if a civilian casualty, when it was
indisputable that a great many of those injured or killed in
Israeli offensives were armed Hizbullah combatants."

"My point is this: in a grown-up society such as our own,
the media cannot expect to get away with parading falsehoods
as truths, or ignoring salient facts because they happen to
be inconvenient to the line of argument - or narrative -
that particular journalists, or media organizations, might
choose to adopt on any given controversy or issue."

For more on Downer, see this article from today's
"Herald-Sun," Australia's biggest-selling daily newspaper, please click here.

It seems that Hizbullah have learned much from Palestinian
terror groups, who have a long successful track record of
taking in sympathetic or gullible western journalists. See,
for example, www.tomgrossmedia.com/Jeningrad.html.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Naomi Regan

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at August 30, 2006 09:11 AM

Comments

Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.

1. No profanity.

2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism.

That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.

Posted by: Kent at August 30, 2006 09:35 AM

Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at August 30, 2006 09:43 AM

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