Much of what has been widely treated as self-evident in the current Hamas-Israel war – from the alleged famine and unsubstantiated casualty statistics in Gaza, and more – cannot stand up to critical scrutiny, and is in fact little more than disinformation disseminated from one source: Hamas, via its various channels, including its so-called “Gaza Ministry of Health.”
Relatively early in the war, on November 5, CBC News aired a report during its program The National entitled: “Gaza refugee camps bombed as ceasefire calls grow.” The broadcast, filed by reporter Ellen Mauro, featured a clip of a Gazan girl who lost both her legs in an explosion, which CBC News attributed to Israel, saying it was due to “an Israeli strike.”
But as was pointed out in a subsequent complaint by HonestReporting Canada’s Executive Director, Mike Fegelman, the explosion could certainly have been attributable to an errant Palestinian rocket, as happened two weeks earlier at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, when a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) errant rocket struck the healthcare centre, while Israel was blamed for it.
Following HonestReporting Canada’s complaint, on July 19, CBC’s ombudsman, Jack Nagler, released a review which conceded that the report made claims which it could not verify or confirm.
While Nagler resisted calls that a formal correction was warranted, his acknowledgement that the news report attributed the explosion to an Israeli rocket attack and that this could not be proven is significant, as much of the news media coverage of the Hamas-Israel war simply repeats what Hamas alleges, and not what is actually taking place.
In the same review, Nagler noted another complaint filed by HonestReporting Canada regarding the behaviour of Samira Mohyeddin, a now former CBC journalist.
On November 6, Mohyeddin re-shared a post on her personal X (formerly Twitter) account from an Israeli government minister who thanked Israeli soldiers for arresting Ahed Tamimi, a young Palestinian woman for posting violent death threats against Israelis.
Mohyeddin, a vocal disseminator of anti-Israel propaganda, took issue with that, and criticized the Israeli minister for “celebrating the arrest” of the woman, because she “was taken in the middle of the night.”
What Mohyeddin conveniently omitted from her retelling was that Tamimi had written on social media that “We will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke. We will drink your blood and eat your skull. Come on, we are waiting for you.”
Nagler pointed out in his review that Senior Manager of Journalistic Standards Nancy Waugh conceded that Mohyeddin’s post “did not contain the level of context we expect that would meet our standards.” Waugh added that “I can confirm that there has been a discussion about the need to ensure the audience has the information it needs to ensure those standards are met. That context can come in a single post, in a thread or over a period of time.”
According to Nagler, Moyheddin no longer works for CBC, though she still appears on the broadcaster’s website.
Regarding unsubstantiated claims, it is certainly better to at the very least acknowledge the source of those allegations, rather than treating them as truthful, and regarding the irresponsible comments by Mohyeddin on social media, it is welcome news that CBC has cautioned staff to be responsible in their social media comments online, though a formal structure of discipline moving forward would be far better.
While CBC’s response to these two complaints represents a step in the right direction, it remains far short of what is needed and HonestReporting Canada will continue to hold the country’s publicly-funded broadcaster accountable.
