On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens stated that the “Palestinians” that The New York Times relied on for its “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say” headline on the Gaza hospital blast were actually Hamas and that due to the terror group’s iron grip on the area, “everything that comes out of it has to be checked, double-checked, and triple-checked.”
Stephens said, “I have been covering this story for 25 years, I was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. The media has a real problem there, because when they cover Palestinian issues, they are covering an authoritarian society where people live in fear of telling the truth. So, everything that comes out of it has to be checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. When you’re talking about the Palestinians in this case, you’re actually talking about Hamas. Every time health authorities are mentioned in Gaza, it’s not like the FDA showed up or something — or the Red Cross. It’s Hamas. And this goes to the basic difference between what we have on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. On the Israeli side, for all of its problems, it is an open, democratic society. Journalists do not live in fear that the government is going to hurt them for what they report. When you’re writing about the Palestinians, they are living in fear. So, think of it — it’s not the same — but to some extent, it’s like reporting from North Korea or South Korea.”
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