By Guy Page
You probably won’t see much coverage about this story because Trump’s clean-up of D.C. will lead every news program for at least the next 24 hours, but on Sunday, August 10 Israel military targeted and killed a 27-year-old Al-Jazeera journalist in Gaza.
His name was Anas al-Sharif, and his colleagues in the mainstream press are rending their garments over the death of one journalist in particular and the free press in general. Israel does not dispute the deed. But – I am dismayed but not surprised – the world’s press won’t report why Israel killed this man and his team.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and 4 team members killed in Israeli attack in Gaza, CBS curtly dismissed the Israeli reason for killing al-Sharif: “Israel took responsibility for the strike, claiming al-Shariff was a leader of a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Shariff had previously dismissed as baseless, The Associated Press reported.”
Ditto the NPR story, headlined “Israeli strike kills journalists in Gaza City, worsening the death toll for the media.” Literally reading off the same script (probably from the Associated Press) as CBS, NPR reported: Israel’s military later Sunday described al-Sharif as the leader of a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless.”
The New York Times at least reported some detail about Israel’s claim that al-Sharif was a paid fighter for Hamas. But it failed to show the receipts, which were readily available from the Israeli military (see below). Fox News, which has no local affiliate but does have a big online and cable audience, also listed some details.
In fact, almost every other major news organization tossed off the Israeli rationale for killing al-Sharif with a one-liner like ABC’s “The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it targeted Sharif, claiming the correspondent headed a Hamas cell and was involved in rocket attacks against Israeli targets.”
The MSN headline added to the “no credible evidence” chorus that Al-Sharif worked for Hamas.
It is baffling that any major news organization could be so lazy or willfully blind to fail to produce evidence, readily published by the Israeli military. This version of a document on the Israeli Embassy Facebook page does not reproduce well, but the white highlights show Al-Sharif was in the pay of Hamas, and was even in a Hamas unit phone directory (bottom photo):
Or, this piece of objective, dispassionate news coverage?
So what does this have to do with Vermont?
First, like it or not, Vermont is a player in the future of Israel. Bernie Sanders has been leading the charge to defund the Israeli military. And within days of October 7 2023, Sanders, Sen. Peter Welch, and Rep. Becca Balint have more often than not sided with pro-Palestine POV.
Second, the news organizations listed above have a strong Vermont news presence. NPR has Vermont Public. CBS has WCAX. These local stations carry their national stories on air and on their websites. The NY Times has a regiment of Vermont subscribers who still consider the Gray Lady the Paper of Record.
Third, don’t be surprised if you see ‘Vermonters for Palestine’ demonstrators on Church Street, the UVM campus, or online parading their grief for al-Sharif and heaping condemnation on Israel. Their goal is to paint Oct. 7 attackers Hamas as the mostly-good guys and Oct. 7 victims Israel as the very, very bad guys. Misreported stories like this one are just one more opportunity to spread the socialist/Islamist coalition Global Intifada.
Is it possible Israel is doing some misreporting on its own? Sure, could be. No government at war is above spinning and outright lying. But here’s my takeaway for the Vermont news consumer: Caveat Emptor. When ‘your’ media says anything is ‘baseless,’ check it out.