A headline is without a doubt the most important part of a news item – it is the first thing readers see and should give them a clear understanding of the thrust of the story.
It is for this reason that several recent Reuters headlines were so troubling.
On May 27, the wire service published a piece titled, ‘Hamas challenges Israel over nationalist flag march in Jerusalem,’ which detailed the response by the Gaza-based terrorist organization to Jerusalem Day activities scheduled for Sunday.
But upon reading the article, it becomes clear that Hamas has not simply “challenge[d]” Israel as Reuters suggests. Rather, the group has tacitly threatened a country with nearly 10 million citizens with war.
Indeed, Reuters quotes a senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, saying: “They can avoid a war and escalation if they stop this mad [march].”
His quote, which continues in another linked Reuters article, continues:
‘I expect that Hamas and the other [military] factions are ready to do all they can to prevent this event, regardless of how much it costs us.
‘The decision is in the hands of the Israelis and the international community.'”
Reuters has seemingly chosen to downplay the threat by the same terrorist group that only last year sparked an 11-day conflict with a barrage of indiscriminate rocket fire at Jerusalem.
The headline also invites readers to reach the mistaken conclusion that the Jerusalem Day celebrations are a deliberately provocative move that is designed to whip up tensions with Palestinians.
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But while Reuters has imputed malevolent motives to the yearly event commemorating Israel’s reunification of the holy city in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, HonestReporting has detailed what Jerusalem Day actually consists of:
Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim) is a national holiday in Israel defined by gatherings, state ceremonies and memorial services for those killed in a defensive war in which Israel acquired the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Yom Yerushalayim activities range from performances by Israel’s best-known artists to family hikes, standup comedy sets and poetry readings. One of the highlights is the large parade through Jerusalem.”
Threatening war against a country that is celebrating its success in a war of survival is not a “challenge” – it is a display of naked aggression by a terrorist organization that has stated it will never accept Israel’s right to exist.
Meanwhile, on May 26, Reuters published another piece that included even more graphic threats.
Headlined, ‘Hamas says Israel must rethink flag march or face violence,’ the article quotes Naim’s warning of the potential for suicide attacks in Jerusalem ordered by other Palestinian terror groups:
‘Who said that the reaction will only be from Gaza? Perhaps you will have suicide bombers inside Jerusalem, I don’t know. Not ordered from us,” he said, pointing to a spate of recent attacks in Israel by men not affiliated to Palestinian factions.
‘The battle isn’t with Hamas alone, it is with the Palestinian people,’ he said.”
Reuters goes on to refer to the Second Intifada, a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, stabbing attacks and rock assaults on innocent Israeli civilians as the “Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005.”
Again, this headline does not adequately summarize the contents of the story: Hamas warning of a series of attacks similar to the Second Intifada if the flag march goes ahead.
Another Reuters piece from May 26 also references the Jerusalem Day celebrations. With a headline like, ‘Israeli court upholds ban on Jewish prayer at Al Aqsa compound,’ a reader could easily get the mistaken impression that Jews were provocatively praying at a mosque that Muslim tradition states is the third holiest site in Islam.
This, of course, was not the case.
Rather, the ban upheld was against Jews praying at the Temple Mount upon which the Al-Aqsa mosque was built — the site of the two Jewish temples and the holiest place in Judaism.
While the aforementioned may seem trivial, they are important when we consider the fact that studies have shown that 80 percent of readers will not continue past the headline.
Reuters, therefore, has a duty to ensure that its headlines accurately reflect the story. Failing to do so is an act of journalistic malfeasance since omitting or distorting the essential facts ultimately misleads readers around the world who rely on the global news service for the unvarnished truth.
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Featured Image: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
