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Media Hides Truth After International Group Says No ‘Famine’ in Gaza
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
It’s embarrassing to admit a mistake. But it’s worse to try and hide it.
Sadly, media outlets opted for the latter in their coverage of a revised report that contradicted their narrative on a Gaza “famine.”
The June 25 report, by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), included two main points:
Contrary to the IPC’s widely-covered estimates from March 18, the report stated that “the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring” in northern Gaza.
A “high risk” of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip, as long as conflict continues.
Any journalist reading the report should have immediately noticed that its authors have buried the first point — which is new and proves that they were wrong — while leading with the second point, which is repetitive and speculative.
But instead of critically calling out their source and reporting what’s new in the report, media outlets were happy to copy-paste it, effectively burying, distorting, or altogether omitting the news that would have embarrassed them and the IPC alike for spreading false information.
Omission and Distortion
In March, media headlines were quick to parrot the IPC’s “famine” forecast, and in early June, they ignored the monitor’s admission of several flaws in its original data-gathering.
Ideally, these journalistic sins should have been corrected by now, with headlines about the revised report that look like this:
Global monitor announces no evidence of Gaza famine
Global monitor lowers estimate of Gazans facing “catastrophic” hunger from 1.1 million to 495,000
IPC admits March report on Gaza famine was faulty
Aid deliveries alleviated hunger conditions in Gaza – report
Instead, media outlets buried this information, as well as omitted or distorted it, to hide the truth from their audience.
CNN buried the no-famine point in the 10th paragraph of its text story. On Instagram, it’s been completely omitted with a reframed headline:
The report stated its previous assumptions were wrong on the amount of food entering Gaza and said, “In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring.”
But that would’ve ruined @CNN‘s narrative… pic.twitter.com/8sNznK2Rkx
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 26, 2024
The Guardian went further, not only burying the news (in the 3rd paragraph), but distorting it with an agenda-driven headline:
The British paper also had no qualms about publishing an op-ed that falsely claims Israel is deliberately starving Gazans the same way the Nazis starved Jews in the Holocaust.
“The idea that we can somehow put what is happening in Gaza at a distant remove from the history of the Warsaw ghetto is grotesque.”
No, @guardian, what’s grotesque is publishing an op-ed that falsely claims Israel is deliberately starving Gazans the same way the Nazis starved… pic.twitter.com/MCEqTKnYp4
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 26, 2024
Distortion also plagued The New York Times’ report, which framed the entire story with comments from aid groups, and avoided mentioning the no-famine point by stating (in the 3rd paragraph) that the IPC has “stopped short of saying that a famine had begun.”
The BBC, the Telegraph, and The Independent almost copy-pasted the IPC report verbatim, with headlines about the risk of famine:
These three outlets also uncritically parroted the report’s assessment that almost half a million Gazans now face “catastrophic” hunger — without mentioning that it’s down from the original estimate of 1.1 million, and that no actual famine was found.
Media Cop Out
Admittedly, news outlets must cover what bodies like the IPC report. And it’s true that the report sneakily started with the words: “A high risk of famine persists across the whole Gaza Strip.”
But journalists should read between the lines, understand the background, and not just take the IPC’s word as gospel, especially if its previous reports have been proven wrong.
Unfortunately, media outlets avoided this inconvenience and chose to perpetuate the false famine narrative.
After all, it’s an easy cop-out that hides their own faults of parroting unreliable sources.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media Hides Truth After International Group Says No ‘Famine’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy
FILE PHOTO: Adam Boehler, the CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, US, April 14, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Adam Boehler to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the White House said on Saturday.
Boehler, who has been working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, will continue hostage-related work as a so-called “special government employee,” a position that would not need Senate confirmation.
“Adam Boehler will continue to serve President Trump as a special government employee focused on hostage negotiations,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Adam played a critical role in negotiating the return of Marc Fogel from Russia. He will continue this important work to bring wrongfully detained individuals around the world home.”
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Boehler withdrew his nomination to avoid divesting from his investment company. The move was unrelated to the controversy sparked by his discussions with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“He still has the utmost confidence of President Trump,” said the official.
“This gives me the best ability to help Americans held abroad as well as work across agencies to achieve President Trump’s objectives,” Boehler told Reuters in a brief statement.
Boehler recently held direct meetings with Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza. The discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US brands as terrorist organizations.
The talks angered some Senate Republicans and some Israeli leaders. According to Axios, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer expressed his displeasure to Boehler in a tense phone call last week.
Boehler was given permission from the Trump administration to engage directly with Hamas, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week, calling the talks a “one-off situation” that had not borne fruit.
Boehler has been credited with helping secure the release of Fogel, a US schoolteacher who was freed by Russia in February after three and a half years in prison.
The post White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy addressing the 38th Zionist Congress. Photo: Screenshot.
i24 News – A French intellectual superstar and a pair of German officials announced that they withdrew from a conference on antisemitism organized by the Israeli government, citing the participation of far-right figures in the Jerusalem event.
Iconic thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was set to deliver the conference’s keynote address, opted out upon learning that Marion Marechal and Jordan Bardella from France’s far-right National Rally party were among the other speakers.
Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, “has decided not to attend,” his representatives told Haaretz.
“He was unaware of the other attendees when he accepted the invitation, and upon learning who the other speakers were, he decided to withdraw.”
Volker Beck, a former Green Party parliamentarian who chairs the Germany-Israel Friendship Society (DIG) also announced he was cancelling his attendance. “If we associate ourselves with extreme right-wing forces, we discredit our common cause; it also goes against my personal convictions and will have a negative impact on our fight against antisemitism within our societies.”
The post Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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