Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
“Israeli military dropped bombs in ‘lethal proximity’ of at least 19 Lebanese hospitals, CNN analysis finds,” the American network’s headline declared.
What CNN should have written instead was: “Israeli military has not targeted any Lebanese hospital, while bombing Hezbollah infrastructure nearby.”
But that’s not a story, because it shows that Israel deliberately avoids harming civilian targets.
So CNN’s biased reporter, Tamara Qiblawi, twisted the facts to demonize Israel — and got a non-story published.
What @CNN‘s investigation actually reveals:
Israel has not targeted any Lebanese hospitals.
Hezbollah infrastructure is located in the close vicinity of many hospitals.But that can’t be the story for @tamaraqiblawi, a CNN senior investigator with a history of bias. https://t.co/RsM5XA2m7K
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 3, 2024
It’s a long read, full of testimonies, infographics, and data analyses, showing that most of the strikes landed “in the vicinity” of hospitals.
It details bomb fragments that hit these hospitals.
But it fails to say that this is precisely what proves the surgical nature of Israel’s strikes. Otherwise, these hospitals would have been reduced to rubble.
The report even includes a legal explanation about the protected status of hospitals.
Did no editor ask if the story shows that Israel abides by international law?
Did no boss wonder why a journalist spends so much effort covering what did not happen?
The report does include Israel’s response, blaming Hezbollah’s presence amid the civilian population. Then why didn’t Qiblawi spend at least an equivalent amount of time investigating where the terrorists are hiding?
Perhaps this is because Qiblawi has a history of bias against Israel. She has promoted anti-Israel conspiracy theories and joked about the Jewish State’s destruction.
Yet CNN has taken no action against her.
That might explain why the story ends with a nurse complaining about Israel’s evacuation warning:
For Nurse Foany, merely considering the evacuation was a terrifying thought. “Can you imagine what that was like? Imagine evacuating Lebanon’s largest public hospital, not just its staff but its sick and its injured in a single night,” he said. “It was a horrific thought.”
Because that’s all this is — horrific thoughts rather than actual reality. And that’s what Qiblawi wants to achieve — an audience imagining the worst of Israel.
With such reporting and editing, Israel faces a lose-lose situation in the international media: If it hadn’t issued evacuation warnings, it would have been covered as a monster. When it does everything it can to spare civilian sites despite Hezbollah’s nearby presence, it’s blamed for causing shrapnel damage and displacement.
But what this pseudo-journalism piece really shows is that Israel goes to extreme lengths to save innocent people’s lives, and Hezbollah is the one that puts them at risk.
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 How CNN’s Biased Anti-Israel Reporter Distorted the Truth in Lebanon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
