In the wake of the Israeli military launching a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants from continuing to fire rockets into their country, NBC has repeatedly taken jabs at Israel and its military.
In a report filed on Today on Sunday, July 20, Richard Engel, NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent, provided a fairly biased report on the ongoing violence in the Middle East which concluded by the reporter hyping a Palestinian official saying Israel’s ground attack “was a war crime in the making.”
The NBC reporter began his coverage by highlighting “scenes of devastation in a Palestinian neighborhood called [sic] is just on the outskirts of Gaza City, we're seeing children and bodies in the streets, women and children. What happened, we're told, is that Israeli forces early this morning tried to push into [sic] push in with tanks and armored vehicles.”
For his part, Richard Engel did note that “one Israeli armored vehicle was attacked by a Palestinian rocket, a shoulder fired rocket. That vehicle was a catastrophic loss. There were heavy Israeli casualties.” Unfortunately, nowhere in his report did Engel mention that the Israeli offensive was in response to ongoing Hamas rocket attacks into their country. instead, the NBC reporter chose to highlight the Palestinian deaths:
Residents were desperately trying to call ambulances. Ambulances according to medical officials, were not able to reach the area. There was a lot of damage. Dozens killed. One Palestinian medical official said it was a war crime in the making.
In recent days, NBC’s reporters have been seen showing sympathy for Hamas and the Palestinian people. On Wednesday, July 16, Andrea Mitchell [1], NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, wondered “how long can Israel withstand this kind of international pressure?” Reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, was recently seen acting as a spokesperson for Hamas [2] by denying that they use civilians as human shields.
The next day, Mohyeldin continued his trend of making controversial statements [3] on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he wrote on his Facebook page “the #US State Department Spokesperson just said that #Hamas is ultimately responsible for #Israel shelling and killing 4 boys who were cousins aged 9-11 because Hamas didn’t accept the # ceasefire. Discuss among yourselves.”
See relevant transcript below.
NBC
Today
July 20, 2014
ERICA HILL: Elsewhere in the world, we're following the story out of Gaza where it was a horrific scene this morning. From one of the most intense days of fighting, between the Israeli military and Hamas militants, one of the most intense days so far. Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel is in Gaza City now with more for us. Richard, good morning.
RICHARD ENGEL: Good morning. I think you can say this is definitely the most intense day so far. Scenes of devastation in a Palestinian neighborhood called [sic] is just on the outskirts of Gaza City, we're seeing children and bodies in the streets, women and children. What happened, we're told, is that Israeli forces early this morning tried to push into [sic] push in with tanks and armored vehicles. One Israeli armored vehicle was attacked by a Palestinian rocket, a shoulder fired rocket. That vehicle was a catastrophic loss. There were heavy Israeli casualties. Then Israel moved in with a rescue operation, sending in more troops, and to provide cover for that rescue operation they unleashed a ferocious bombardment on the neighborhood of [sic]. Residents were desperately trying to call ambulances. Ambulances according to medical officials, were not able to reach the area. There was a lot of damage. Dozens killed. One Palestinian medical official said it was a war crime in the making. Then amid pressure to try and create some sort of cease-fire, the two sides agreed to a two-hour window to allow Palestinians to go in, recover some of the bodies, even that window did not hold. The fighting there continues and this is hardly over.
HILL: All right, Richard Engel for us this morning. Richard thank you.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [4]