Conservative media had a field day exposing the MSM on its collective false claim that Israel bombed the Gaza hospital and that 500 died.  It was covered well on AT.  Drew Holden and Thaleigha Rampersad at the Washington Free Beacon supplied the complete list of media outlets that were duped or unquestioningly went along.  Truth won.  Or did it?

When a story like the Gaza hospital bombing comes out, it is the lead on all the networks, the main headline in the large bold font atop the print and internet editions of news sites.  By the time the media get around to their stealth edits, inaccurate corrections on page A24, and 15-second network news retractions, the damage is done and never undone.  The internet does help get the word out, but the half of the populace still relying on TV news, too liberal to visit conservative sites, or too filled with hatred for Israel, will still think that Israel bombed the hospital or at least tries to do such things.

You think I’m kidding?  Recall the al-Dura affair in 2000, in which video captured a Palestinian boy supposedly caught in an Israeli-Palestinian crossfire and allegedly killed by the Israelis, with the picture of him crying while crouching next to his father at a wall behind a barrel still etched in the world’s mind.  But the evidence is overwhelming that the scene was faked, that the boy likely didn’t even die, and that the spliced-and-diced video of Al-Dura shown on France 2 was a travesty.  It led to French court scenes reminiscent of the Dreyfus affair.  In the end truth won, right?  Wrong.  The initial press coverage led directly to the so-called Second Intifada in which 1,000 Israelis and around double that number of Palestinians died.  And to this day much of the world still holds Israel responsible.

Closer to home, the press breathlessly reported over a long period of time on alleged Trump-Russia collusion.  A lot of intrepid investigative work mainly by conservative media finally uncovered that this was a plot concocted by Hillary Clinton and her operatives, who used the Perkins Coie law firm (which at some point set aside office space for FBI participation) as a cutout to hire Christopher Steele of Fusion GPS as a cutout to concoct his infamous dossier implicating Trump.  So truth won, right?  Wrong.  To this day, a large chunk of Americans (if I recall, a recent poll suggested it’s close to 40%) still thinks Trump was a Russian spy, which is bad enough, but not only that, these charges and the Mueller investigation hampered Trump’s first term.  Think of the possibly permanent damage done to our country these last three years due to Trump’s ouster.  They won and truth lost.  Mission accomplished, and no one was even punished.

Due primarily to internet competition and reduced revenues, the MSM does virtually no independent investigating anymore, relying wholly on biased outlets like the AP and Reuters which themselves knowingly rely on biased local sources, and also acts as willing stooges for Deep State leaks.  Throw in the MSM’s usual anti-conservative and anti-Israel bias, and its new role as political advocate, and it’s no surprise this is what we get.  They’d rather make the mistake to push the narrative and then live with the minimal consequences.  Same with the likes of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who constantly tweet false claims and take their time deleting them.

Mark Hemingway of the Federalist writes that the press must be held accountable for its Gaza hospital reporting.  But all he can come up with is this:

If the media persist in reporting pro-Hamas propaganda, they deserve to start acutely feeling pain from subscribers and advertisers alike.

There must be more that can be done.  Conservative sites should relentlessly remind readers what the MSM did.  Maybe the Republicans with backbone can announce that they won’t grant the New York Times and the Washington Post any scoops or interviews until they return their Pulitzer Prizes for their fake Trump-Russia collusion reporting.  Put interviewers on the defensive; for example, if a reporter asks, “What do you think about the latest jobs report,” the response (with an aide getting it on video) should be, “I want to make sure you cover my response accurately.  Does your network consider the Gaza health ministry a reliable source of information on the Gaza hospital bombing?  And how come you never make these kinds of mistakes in the other direction?”  Ron DeSantis and others are starting to get good at this.  Embarrass them into improving.  Make them pay to make them change.

W.A. Eliot is a pseudonym

Image: Osama Eid