The excoriation that Israel has experienced at the media’s keyboard during the Hamas-Israel war, with CBC News being a significant contributor, is usually unbalanced and decontextualized, in violation of key journalistic principles.

This bias can be apparent in what the article says and what it omits. In a CBC News article by writer and producer Mouhamad Rachini on November 29 entitled: “Sport was another casualty of war in Lebanon. Fans hope they can get back on track,” the bias was evident in what it left out.

Rachini’s article described the damaging effect of the war on Lebanese sports. He started with some background, writing that “after 14 months of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the two sides have agreed to a ceasefire, effective Wednesday. The deal calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting. It comes after more than 15,000 Lebanese were wounded and another 3,760 were killed by Israeli strikes, according to Lebanese authorities.”

This glossed over how the war actually started. On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah – a terrorist organization and a powerful Iranian proxy – began firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas’ massacre and hostage-taking the day before in southern Israel. Hezbollah has launched an estimated 10,000 missiles into Israel since the start of the war. But they intended far worse damage. They had 3,000 terrorists prepped, tunnels and weapons all prepared to invade Israel and commit October 7-type atrocities. With its operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel prevented what would have been further massacres. Rachini did not deem any of this background worthy of mention.

Throughout his article about the impact of the war on Lebanese sports, Rachini also canceled the effects of Hezbollah’s fire on the residents of northern Israel, who comprise most of the over 68,000 Israelis displaced by the war.

He did, however, detail the impact in Lebanon. Rachini wrote, “One of the sectors damaged by Israel’s attacks is Lebanon’s sports. All leagues have been on pause for the past two months, and many athletes were among those forced to flee their homes. Some even succumbed to injuries caused by Israeli strikes and raids.”

Abou Diab, founder of the Lebanese soccer page FA Lebanon, was quoted by Rachini as saying that soccer is hit worse than other sports because it is located in “Lebanon’s Muslim-majority parts.” In fact, Rachini ended his article by quoting Diab saying, “But right now, the players want to come back to their villages, to Dahiya, want to spend time with their families and also to work on their houses.”

Rachini neglected to explain the reason those areas were targeted: they were home to Hezbollah terrorists and weapons. Dahiya, for example, is a Hezbollah terrorist stronghold, with their terror sites hidden under civilian buildings and within residential neighbourhoods.

War is terrible and the impact on civilians is horrendous and sports is the least of it. But the terrorist instigators are the ones responsible for the conflict, enduring hostilities and the loss of innocent life.

Rachini’s skewed version of events should not come as a surprise. As the Toronto Sun’s Warren Kinsella has reported about Rachini, he has allegedly “shown up in the Toronto newsroom wearing a keffiyeh – and has posted online that Israel is ‘an oppressive, destructive’ country and ‘you’re a vile human being if you still defend or excuse Israel.’” Rachini also signed an open letter in 2021 calling for more anti-Israel news coverage.

Our public broadcaster, the CBC, needs to re-examine its content and its choice of reporters. In this article it has denied its readers access to balanced reporting, and has ignored much of the context needed to understand this story. Unfortunately, this is far from the first time.