Fox News Continues to Suggest Israel Did Not Bomb Qana

[ProSense]

Eric Boehlert
08.03.2006

Fox News Continues to Suggest Israel Did Not Bomb Qana

This really is remarkable, even by Fox News standards. Four days after the Israeli government admitted to, and apologized for, mistakenly bombing a civilian apartment building in the Lebanese town of Qana and killing 60 innocents in the process, American right-wingers continue to scramble, trying to create a parallel universe explanation where fungible facts show it wasn't Israel's fault at all. In fact, Israel's the victim of a massive Qana hoax. Naturally, Fox News' high-profile hosts and guests are leading the delusional charge.

Earlier this week FNC host Oliver North, discussing the bombing in Qana, lamented the fact that "whether the Israelis did it or not, the Israelis are going to get blamed for it." North also clearly suggested the civilians in Qana may have been "killed by Hezbollah." (Killed for public relations reasons, according to the wing nut logic.)

More recently, Fox News contributing analyst, the willfully fact-free Michelle Malkin (she's the one who during the Terri Schiavo controversy was certain--certain!--the GOP talking points memo was a fake; she's the one who suggested Sen. John Kerry shot himself on purpose while serving in Vietnam), announced the grief broadcast from Qana was "manufactured," that the photos of the rubble there looked "staged," and that Hezbelloh was likely responsible for the carnage. Fox News host Bill O'Reilly quickly agreed, insisting, "It doesn't matter if there is an investigation that shows Hezbelloh killed their own people" in Qana.

For those keeping track of the Middle East spin game, that means Fox News has now outflanked the Israeli government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/fox-news-continues-to-sug_b_26411.html

[tanyev]

1. Yeah, Free Republic's all over it, too.

Karl's fax machine has been verrrry busy.

[KKKarl is an idiot]

2. ..

What a bunch of @#&$%^$&#*Y*#@!^!$^#$*&#^&^@#&$^#. Fox news gets me mad all the time. Michelle "I am anchor baby" Malkin is an idiot. I think she does not want to be upstaged by Ann "the man" Coulter in making stupid comments. Bill Oreilly & Sean Hannity have their own little stupidest comment cometition going on. Oliver North has to wait for George Bush to retire before he can have competition on Fox as to who put this country in more danger from our enemies. Can you believe that people actually listen & believe this alternate universe truth that Fox spews.

[frankieT]

3. of course.

i guess they can't afford this kind of bad PR for Israel. as they fed for years their audience with emotional stuff (mostly bad vibes: fear & hate) to shut-down the little intelligence of the viewers, now they are afraid of showing that the good guy of the show is not so good. FOX news is for idiots and fanatics.

[Igel]

4. EU Referendum,

a British site with Conservative ties, has been looking at time stamps and the like from the numerous photographers that submitted photos to the news services.

They claim that the photos are staged, since the time stamps (as they put it) are spaced hours apart, there are two photos in which the same body is allegedly being found by different people at different times, the rescuers clothing and hands aren't even smudged with cement dust. The agencies' response is that the time stamps aren't time stamps at all, and the photos aren't staged. One even says they had three photographers on the ground (one of those mysteries ... aid can't get in, people can't get out, but a horde of press and rescuers can get in). I don't put it past the people--and the photographers--to stage the photos. This has more to do with how Hezbollah or the Lebanese are engaging in PR than actual deaths, however. That they are engaging in some heavy PR elsewhere is beyond dispute; it serves their interests, and the media's.

The other line of quibbling is that if the building was bombed at ~ 1 a.m., and didn't collapse for hours (although the eye-witnesses have it collapsing everywhere from immediately after being struck to ~ 8 a.m.), why were people still in it. They assert that the bodies were actually from Tyre, and brought in on ambulances; after the bodies were put into place, the building was brought down by Hezbollah. I think this is disingenuous at best, and bordering on loony conspiracy theory.

I must say, there is one question that they raise that I find intriguing, and it's the identity of one of the people. He shows up in Qana on Sunday, in Srifa on Monday, and apparently also in pictures from 1996 when some Lebanese were killed. However, this deals more with the first issue than the second.

In other news, the Red Cross and HRW put the number confirmed dead are 28, with 13 missing (for a total of 41). The Hezbollah-sympathizer issued official numbers for the death toll in Qana dropped slightly to 54 after the Red Cross released its numbers.

(edited to obey English ellipsis rules)

[madrchsod]

5. i wonder how many of these people

have jews as friends that they invite over for lunch? how many really want their kids to marry a "jew"? i could go on but i think you know the fact that anti judaism in this country is no longer mentioned in polite circles but the biggest bigots are those who profess their loyalty to israel
white anglo saxon protestants sometimes disgust me

[leesa]

6. You kiddin' me? They hate jews, but Israel is a useful tool for waging

their wars in the Middle East. Keeps our economy humming.

[SOS]

7. Fox "News" fits this profile:

The United States Office of Strategic Services describing Hitler's psychological profile:

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."