In yesterday’s (August 17) Globe and Mail, Middle East bureau chief Mark MacKinnon quotes a Lebanese man who says:
"Israeli forces, if they see one Hezbollah fighter shooting among 1,000 civilians, they will shoot the 1,000 civilians."
This isn’t the first time MacKinnon has printed irresponsible quotes; see our previous criticism of his reporting from Lebanon.
But in this instance, the Globe’s editors decided to highlight the quote on Page A2 as the newspaper’s "Quote of the Day":
The claim that Israeli forces would kill 1,000 Lebanese to get at one Hezbollah fighter does not hold up. While roughly 1,000 Lebanese were reported killed in the conflict, Israel’s air force could have killed many times that in the 10,000 combat missions it flew over Lebanon. Instead, Israel sacrificed its own soldiers in close-combat rather than arbitrarily bomb populated areas.
So why did the Globe and Mail highlight this quote?
Contact the Globe at letters@globeandmail.com
