Last month, the MSM set a high bar for coverage of allegations of Israeli war crimes. Western news services devoted amazing amounts of air time and print space to their investigations and commentary.
The claims were ultimately debunked, but we saw the extent of the media's scrutinizing capabilities. The Guardian, in particular, spent a whole month producing an extensive package of reports, videos and opinions.
Fast-foward to yesterday, when Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing not Israel, but Hamas, of arbitrarily arresting and torturing collaborators and political rivals, and of murdering 32 Palestinians during and after the Gaza war. The full report's here.
Where are the blaring headlines? Will we see an equally extensive investigation by The Guardian and friends of Hamas's own crimes?
I share Richard Cohen's pessimism:
No doubt the Human Rights Watch report will be ignored or dismissed in the greater cause of demonizing Israel. This has been the trend of late. No doubt, too, some will excuse Hamas's criminality as the inevitable result of Israeli actions — the Officer Krupke School of Behavior made famous by the singing gang members of "West Side Story." But as much as some would like to criticize Israel — and I have done so myself — they still have a minimal obligation to acknowledge the difference in core values between Israel and its enemies.
The Guardian will undoubtedly argue that it covered the HRW report yesterday.
But there's a big difference between one 571-word article quoting from someone else's study, and spending a month on an entire package of original "journalism." Don't hold your breath waiting. When it comes to these kinds of claims, the coverage is, well, disproportionate.
