{"id":365090,"date":"2018-06-12T03:52:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T02:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nyt-carries-idf-attack-on-murdered-medic-reveals-its-a-smear-in-20th-paragraph\/"},"modified":"2018-06-12T03:52:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T02:52:33","slug":"nyt-carries-idf-attack-on-murdered-medic-reveals-its-a-smear-in-20th-paragraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nyt-carries-idf-attack-on-murdered-medic-reveals-its-a-smear-in-20th-paragraph\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Carries IDF Attack on Murdered Medic\u2013Reveals It\u2019s a Smear in 20th Paragraph"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NYT:<\/p>\n

Journalism how-not-to: New York Times<\/strong> (6\/7\/18<\/a>) puts the attack in the headline, reveals it’s a smear in paragraph 20.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A reporter at the most influential paper in English-language media appears to not know the difference between a government \u201ctightly editing\u201d and selectively editing video.<\/p>\n

New York Times<\/b> reporter Herbert Buchsbaum (6\/7\/18<\/a>) wrote up a propaganda video posted by the Israeli Defense Force,<\/b> showing Rouzan al-Najjar\u2013a 21-year-old medic the Israeli Defense Force shot and killed earlier this month\u2014apparently throwing a tear-gas canister, along with a brief clip of her purportedly saying, \u201cI am here on the front line and I act as a human shield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video seems to suggest that throwing a device spewing caustic gas away from people into an empty field is a sort of violence. (\u201cThis medic was incited by Hamas,\u201d the video reads as she grabs the canister.) But the primary problem with the IDF video is that it deceptively edits her comments to distort what she said\u2014a fact not noted by the Buchsbaum until paragraph 20, when he threw in this crucial piece of information:<\/p>\n

\n

In the longer video, the comment that the military translated as \u201cI act as a human shield\u201d was part of a sentence in which Ms. Najjar said, \u201cI\u2019m acting as a human rescue shield to protect the injured inside the armistice line.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cActing as a human shield to protect the injured inside the armistice line\u201d has a radically different meaning than the commonly understood canard about Palestinians using \u201chuman shields\u201d to protect \u201cterrorists.\u201d This hugely consequential fact should have led the story; instead, it\u2019s casually tossed out in the third-to-last paragraph. The story here is that the IDF\u2014as it has been doing for decades<\/a>\u2014casually lies and distorts facts to suit its narrative. Like all militaries, the Israeli military is not presenting a \u201cdueling narrative\u201d in good faith, as a New York Times<\/b> tweet<\/a> suggested; it\u2019s manipulating video, hoping credulous journalists help them muddy the waters, as Buchsbaum did.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the bizarre IDF press release write-up serves no other purpose than to reframe the gunning down of the unarmed medic from a clear crime committed by Israel to a Fog of War \u201cdueling narratives between Israel and Hamas<\/a>\u201d tale of \u201cboth sidesism.\u201d Buchsbaum vaguely alludes to\u2014but strangely omits\u2014the deceptive editing in the opening with his risible turn of phrase in paragraph two:<\/p>\n

\n

The tightly edited video shows a woman identified as the medic, Rouzan al-Najjar, throwing what appears to be a tear-gas canister.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cTightly edited\u201d? What does this mean, exactly? \u201cTight\u201d editing is generally considered a compliment in the film and TV world, and says nothing about deliberate omissions for the purposes of misleading the viewer. When videographer Tate B. James confronted<\/a> Buchsbaum about this fact, Buchsbaum appeared to think he had covered his bases:<\/p>\n

\n

hey herbert, any reason why you waited until the 20th paragraph to let folks know the video was selectively edited?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tate James (@tatebjames) June 8, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

a music video is “tightly edited”, herbert. that video is *deceptively* edited. there’s a difference<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tate James (@tatebjames) June 8, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n

Either Buchsbaum doesn\u2019t know he\u2019s being misleading, and is thus severely unqualified to be writing for a major paper, or he knows he\u2019s spinning in Israel\u2019s favor, but was hoping no one would really notice. Either way, the New York Times<\/b> is once again (FAIR.org<\/b>, 7\/14\/17<\/a>, 5\/17\/18<\/a>, 5\/15\/18<\/a>) using its pages to confuse readers to the benefit of the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

\n

You can send a message to the New York Times<\/strong> at letters@nytimes.com\u00a0<\/a>(Twitter<\/strong>:@NYTOpinion<\/a>). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalism how-not-to: New York Times (6\/7\/18) puts the attack in the headline, reveals it’s a smear in paragraph 20. A reporter at the most influential paper in English-language media appears to not know the difference between a government \u201ctightly editing\u201d and selectively editing video. New York Times reporter Herbert Buchsbaum (6\/7\/18) wrote up a propaganda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-365090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}