As Israel launched multiple airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, the media quickly switched their focus from the atrocities carried out against Israeli civilians last weekend to the stories of suffering in the enclave.
Complete with a dramatic accompanying headline, Business Insider wrote:
Doctors Without Borders told Insider that, on Wednesday, in fact, 100% of their patients were children.
“Today, all of the patients we received at our clinic in Gaza City were children between 10 and 14,” Ayman Al-Djaroucha, deputy project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said on Wednesday.
Was this a pediatric clinic? If so, this is a sensationalist @BusinessInsider headline. If not, it’s a statistically impossible claim.
The Gaza/Hamas propaganda machine is trying to divert your attention away from the stories coming out about murdered, charred Israeli babies.… pic.twitter.com/LDbgi7xdjA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 12, 2023
The claim was certainly astounding. But could it even be statistically possible that every patient brought in for treatment was a young child out of a general population of over 2 million in Gaza?
The only explanation could be that Israel is deliberately targeting children — a charge that is both grotesque and false.
A professional journalist should be asking these questions or attempting to verify the claims. Unfortunately, in what is known as the “halo effect,” reporters commonly cite international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), activists and academics — viewing them as authoritative, non-political and beyond reproach. Their information is assumed reliable and their analysis is given considerable weight.
Even if it could be wrong.
Related reading: The Halo Effect: Why Trust Should Never Be Blind
Regarding Doctors Without Borders, NGO Monitor states that it has consistently abused its status as a humanitarian organization to launch venomous anti-Israel political campaigns.
Business Insider, having been called out by both HonestReporting and an eagle-eyed reader who alerted us to the article and contacted the editor, issued this remarkable correction:
Yes, you read that right: “The clinic only treated two children in that period.”
While we appreciate Business Insider taking remedial action, it’s shocking that such a fundamental error could occur. It also demonstrates how the information coming out of the Gaza Strip can be skewed to create a completely false narrative.
And, as the casualties mount in the face of a potentially protracted Israeli military campaign to destroy Hamas, the misinformation and disinformation are only likely to increase.
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