On Friday, Israelis reacted with horror to a deadly terror attack in which a Palestinian attacker later identified as Hossein Karaka, a 31-year-old from eastern Jerusalem, drove his car into a crowd of civilians waiting at a bus stop in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Despite the fact that the nature of the incident was clear from the outset, numerous international media outlets printed grossly misleading headlines about the incident, including several publications that appeared to question whether a Palestinian driver had deliberately crashed into pedestrians at all.
Here are the most egregious and offensive headlines that HonestReporting called out following the attack.
Scare Quotes to Question Reality
Why the scare quotes around “terrorist,” @MailOnline? What else would you call someone who intentionally murders innocent children at a bus stop? https://t.co/ainJihhQ5s pic.twitter.com/DPgafdguck
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
The website version of the Daily Mail, MailOnline, was notable for its appalling use of scare quotes in the headline that had the effect of encouraging its readers to doubt whether the Palestinian attacker was motivated by terrorist sympathies.
As of Sunday, the quotation marks around the word “terrorist” have not been removed.
This, even as further details of Karaka’s history emerged, including the fact that his personal Facebook account was awash with praise for Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists. In one post, he described the terrorist who carried out a shooting attack at the Shuafat checkpoint last year as a “hero.”
Covering Up the Facts
Palestinian terrorists have no agency according to @CNN. The perpetrator is simply a “car.” https://t.co/9eZ8MG3ExA pic.twitter.com/tJRpYCsKpi
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
CNN appeared to go out of its way to conceal the identity of the attacker in its headline above the story of the incident.
In an example of wording that serves to completely distort what had occurred, the headline suggested a “car” had rammed into the crowd of people, allowing the publication to make no reference to the person who was actually behind the wheel of the vehicle.
Cars do not drive into people on their own accord, CNN. Cars are controlled by their driver — in this case, a Palestinian terrorist.
Other outlets guilty of similar phrasing in their headlines or intros included: Associated Press, the BBC, and Reuters:
.@BBCNews doesn’t identify the victims (hint: Israelis) nor the “driver” (hint: terrorist). Just that it happened in “occupied East Jerusalem, officials say.” Actually, they didn’t. Israeli officials would never refer to their capital in those terms. https://t.co/97XnWHDTVj pic.twitter.com/pehGtE3Xuj
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
A “car ploughs” into a bus stop.
This was not an accident. It was intentional targeting of civilians. Do better @Reuters and stop trying to confuse your readers.https://t.co/2gzz9bqzoB pic.twitter.com/ElzGFiYoNp
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
According to @AP, the terrorist who killed two people, including a six-year-old, is a “driver.”
What do you think this was, a traffic accident?! https://t.co/Tb6c2n4e2U pic.twitter.com/EMAbH1IuIK
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
A Killer Car, Not Terrorist
Cars 👏 don’t 👏 attack 👏 bus stops
A terrorist used his car to target innocent civilians, killing a 6 y/o and 20 y/o.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. pic.twitter.com/oY2nvSuIYg
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
The Times, one of the UK’s leading newspapers, went even further and transformed the terrorist’s car into a sentient being, producing a headline that suggested the car was behind the attack.
What’s more, the headline and subheading sought to mask the identities of the victims and attacker, turning the Palestinian terrorist into a mere “culprit” and neglecting to mention the victims were specifically targeted because they were visibly identifiable as Jews.
Offering a Mitigation
We don’t even know where to begin with this:
The “driver” was a Palestinian terrorist.
He drove his car into the civilians standing at the bus stop.
And Jerusalem is not a settlement. It’s the capital of Israel. pic.twitter.com/HKw6epyuGp
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 10, 2023
The New York Times produced among the most outrageous and misleading reports of the attack (of which you can read more on here).
Not only did the so-called “newspaper of record” fail to acknowledge the fact it was a terror attack, but it also tacitly offered an explanation for why the attack occurred, other than the fact that Karaka was a radicalized terrorist — specifically, that it had taken place in a “settlement.”
Thus, the NYT regurgitated the same propaganda that the likes of Hamas use: Israelis are all colonizers who occupy stolen land and are, therefore, legitimate targets for violence.
Turning Facts into Fiction
Seriously, @NPR?
▶️”𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀” – It did actually happen.
▶️”𝟮 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱” – They did not “die,” they were murdered.
▶️”𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗻” – Palestinian terrorist
▶️”𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲” – Israeli civilians#HeadlineFailhttps://t.co/juOf08BoST pic.twitter.com/a1OqEGRGda— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 12, 2023
American nonprofit news outlet NPR wove an element of doubt into its headline, framing the attack even taking place as something that is potentially unclear. The organization ignored the photos and footage of the scene of the attack that unequivocally show a terror attack occurred and instead stated the incident was something “Israel said” had happened.
In addition, NPR masked the identity of the perpetrator by referring to him simply as a “man” and refused to call the ramming assault what it was — murder.
Attack or Accident?
.@DeutscheWelle, is your headline referring to a road traffic accident or a Palestinian terrorist attack where 3 innocent Israelis were murdered? It’s difficult to tell.#HeadlineFailhttps://t.co/YGBK4Irnt6 pic.twitter.com/qK7gUwq449
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 12, 2023
German news site Deutsche Welle’s headline read more like the description of a road traffic accident than a terror attack.
Although the outlet acknowledges the car had “rammed” into pedestrians at a bus stop, it is not clear that it was both deliberate and the targets were innocent Israeli civilians.
How to Get it Right
The news outlets that attempted — either deliberately or carelessly — to downplay the nature of the attack or cover up who was responsible must do better.
Indeed, they could even do with revisiting journalism 101 to get it right, remembering the five Ws:
Who? A Palestinian terrorist and Israeli civilians.
What? A terror attack.
Where? Israel’s capital city Jerusalem.
When? Hours before Shabbat.
Why? Because the victims were Jewish.
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