NBC News: "Suspected" Terrorist Murders Israeli Teen

UPDATE 3

Disappointingly, the headline has been changed yet again, this time to reflect the information that Hallel Yaffa Ariel was also an American citizen. Her murderer is no longer a Palestinian terrorist according to NBC News, but a “Palestinian teen,” therefore softening the language used to describe the perpetrator.

UPDATE 2

The headline has been amended and the word “suspected” removed. The opening paragraph, which had already seen the same word removed (see update below) has now been further altered. “The accurate word “terrorist” has unfortunately and unnecessarily been replaced with “attacker.”

While the headline change is welcome, the decision to state that Israeli officials said that a Palestinian “attacker” was responsible is inaccurate. Israeli officials most certainly described the assailant as a terrorist.

UPDATE

Several hours after the attack, NBC News has removed the word “suspected” from the opening text of the article, which now reads: “A teenage girl was fatally stabbed in her bedroom by a Palestinian terrorist in the West Bank, Israeli officials said Thursday.”

The headline, however, remains the same.

* * *

Hallel Yaffa Ariel

How appalling an atrocity does a Palestinian have to carry out before media accepts that it is an act of terrorism?

Thirteen-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death in her bedroom this morning by a Palestinian terrorist. According to NBC News, the murderer was a “suspected terrorist”:

It seems crystal clear that this horrific incident is an act of terror carried out by a Palestinian terrorist. How can NBC News attribute the “suspected” terrorist to the Israeli military or Israeli officials when embedded tweets from both the IDF and IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner appear in the article stating clearly that this is a terrorist attack?

This morning a teenage girl was violently stabbed in her bedroom by a #Palestinian terrorist. pic.twitter.com/Pege3V5Nmt

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 30, 2016

Terrorist infiltrated Kiryat Arba & stabbed teen girl in bedroom. Member of security personnel stabbed during rescue pic.twitter.com/S90ihPD4Di

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 30, 2016

HonestReporting Managing Editor Simon Plosker said:

Even when NBC uses the terror word, it still can’t bring itself to do so without qualification. An Israeli teenage girl has been butchered by a Palestinian terrorist. There is nothing “suspected” about this appalling act of terror.

We’ve sent a request to NBC News to rectify this issue. Watch this space.

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020.

Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias.

Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.