Network news programs still bashing Israel over flotilla incident
More than a week has passed since the flotilla raid near Gaza last week, but ABC, CBS, and NBC are still continuing to leave facts out of their reports and present an anti-Israel version of the events.
From May 31 through June 5, the broadcast network evening shows gave little or no coverage of the terror ties of the flotilla passengers. The networks also embellished the so-called humanitarian crisis in
It was reported on May 31 that the passengers who attacked Israeli soldiers aboard a Gaza-bound boat last Monday were part of a banned-from-Israel terror financing group called the IHH, but the broadcast networks barely gave this crucial fact any attention and one show ignored it completely.
CBS “Evening News” reported about the IHH members on June 1, but ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” didn't announce it until June 2. Those were the only times either program cited it. NBC “Nightly News” didn't mention it in any of its flotilla coverage.
Unreported on any of the nightly network news shows was the history behind the Israeli maritime blockade of
However, the broadcast network programs did find time to cover two other issues: the alleged humanitarian crisis in
On June 1, CBS correspondent Robert Roth devoted 60 words to the crisis in Gaza, saying “The U.N. says 70 percent of its million and a half people live on less than a dollar a day, smuggling through tunnels to Egypt provides much of what Gazans need, but at prices not many can afford … Weary of sharing blame, Egypt's now opened its own border with Gaza for humanitarian reasons, said Cairo, but probably not for long.”
That's more than five times the coverage given to
NBC also delivered a lopsided report on June 2. NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell gave 96 words to the coverage of the
“[Netanyahu] claimed there is no humanitarian crisis in
The so-called humanitarian crisis in
Another NBC Nightly News story on June 3 covered the funeral of the nine Turkish militants killed in the flotilla skirmish. The story quoted only pro-Palestinian activists and their friends.
Correspondent Jim Macada reported that, “Nine were killed, at least 19 wounded when Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of cargo ships early Monday trying to deliver aid to the besieged Gaza strip.”
While Macada presented the story as though the Israeli soldiers attacked the flotilla passenger's first, video footage released prior to June 3 showed the Israeli soldiers were assaulted by IHH members on the ship before using force to defend themselves. Further, the use of the word “besieged” to describe
Maceda then quoted a friend of one of the dead Turkish flotilla members as saying “The way the Israelis treated us makes me sad … but I'm proud of my friends. I wish I had died a martyr too.”
Both ABC and NBC also implied that
“A public outpouring like this one poses a danger for
NBC's Andrea Mitchell similarly reported on June 2 that “The White House has warned
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