Nominally referencing the opposing viewpoint while drowning it out with one-sided emotional reporting that obscures the full picture may provide a veneer of journalism to an exceptionally flawed report. This is evidenced in a June 8 CityNews broadcast report by Rhianne Campbell entitled: “Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza, on day 2 of Eid al-Adha”.
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Campbell opened by referring to “a devastating aftermath as civilians in the Gaza city district of Sabra search through rubble to find loved ones, following an Israeli air strike that killed several people including children.”
The report then showed a Gazan telling the camera that “there were no military personnel, it was all civilians, innocent civilian people,” with the report continuing with Campbell citing “local health authorities” (run by Hamas, though this was unsaid) as saying that “over a dozen Palestinians were killed and at least 50 others wounded by crippling air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday.”
Campbell added that it was “responding” to Hamas, but did not specify the nature of its strikes, whom it was targeting, or why.
Quoting a resident saying that there were no military personnel, without referencing Israel’s claim that they killed a terror leader, was heavily lopsided. The Times of Israel reported that “The leader of a small Gaza terror group responsible for the October 7, 2023, abductions and eventual murders of several hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Saturday, the military said.” The report continues by reporting that “Asaad Abu Sharia was head of the Mujahideen Brigades, a relatively small Hamas-allied terror group in the enclave and was killed in the strike on Sabra in Gaza.”
Campbell juxtaposed her report on Saturday’s airstrike with her statement that “the body of Thai hostage Natapong Pinta was returned to Israel in a special military operation. According to Israeli authorities, Pinta was held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel in 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages abducted. This comes 2 days after the bodies of two Israeli American hostages were retrieved, 70-year-old Judy Weinstein Hagai and 72-year-old Gadi Hagai.”
These stories are not unrelated, though they were presented as such by CityNews. The Mujahideen Brigades was the same group that kidnapped and murdered the Hagais and the Thai hostage Pinta. There cannot be a logical reason for omitting this information.
The report’s reference to “local health authorities” claiming that over 12 people were killed and later quoting it as saying that “Gaza health authorities say its assault has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians” is enormously problematic. Referencing these casualty figures without mentioning that Hamas runs the Health Ministry and governs its data output is a significant omission. Hamas’s overall casualty data cannot be considered reliable, in part because it includes combatants and natural deaths in its count. Any statement from them is suspicious at best.
The report showed Mahmoud Bassal, a “civil defense spokesperson” to give his apocalyptic version of the events, neglecting to inform viewers that Israel has demonstrated, with documentation from Hamas themselves, that Bassal is among their ranks. Israel has stated that he “has served as the spokesperson for the Civil Defense for an extended period of time and abuses his role by spreading false and unverified information to the international media, while falsely attributing war crimes to Israel and by presenting fabricated data.” Allowing him to broadcast his version of events without even a footnote about his allegiance to Hamas’s genocidal intentions to Israel is exceptionally distorted reporting.
CityNews’ report by Rhianne Campbell ignored key details, sanitized Hamas’ control of Gaza’s bureaucracy, and treated the terrorist groups’ claims as credible.
