Weekly Israel-Hamas war megathread - week of March 18

there's a famous quote about journalism that apparently goes back to 1974 (if not earlier) in various forms:

“Our job is not to report both sides. One side says it’s raining and the other side says it is not raining. Our job is to look out the window.”

published by CNN today:

Netanyahu says he’s trying everything to get more aid to Gaza. Aid groups say that’s not true

the article, to its credit, does a half-decent job debunking the lies and mistruths Netanyahu told, but of course keeping up the veneer of journalistic objectivity:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN in an interview on Sunday that his country’s policy is to let as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as is necessary, a claim that has been disputed by aid agencies and even contradicts his own statements.

...

The Israeli leader’s claim contradicts statements he made previously, in which he boasted about permitting “minimal humanitarian aid” to enter Gaza.

“We provide minimal humanitarian aid,” Netanyahu said at a press conference in January. “If we want to achieve our war goals, we give the minimal aid.”

...

Netanyahu said that Israel has created “alternative routes” to deliver aid, including through airdrops, shipments by sea, and “land routes.”

Only two land crossings have been used to deliver aid to Gaza – the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. But volumes are insufficient compared to the scale of suffering.

Israel has however tested a pilot program to deliver desperately needed aid to northern Gaza through another border gate, but only six trucks had crossed it as of last Wednesday.

...

“The problem is not the number of trucks going in, although we’re increasing it on a daily basis,” Netanyahu said.

Aid groups and the UN have said that the main problem hampering humanitarian aid in Gaza is the small number of trucks entering the enclave due to Israeli restrictions.

An average of 95 aid trucks per day entered Gaza between October 10 and February 1, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, down from 500 trucks a day before the war through the Rafah crossing alone.

...

Netanyahu told CNN Sunday that Hamas is the main obstacle to aid deliveries and is looting incoming aid. Israel hasn’t provided any evidence to back that claim.

I think the context of the interview is important here:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN in an interview on Sunday

which links to this video, "Watch Dana Bash press Netanyahu over Gaza humanitarian crisis". Netanyahu was interviewed on "State of the Union", which is CNN's entry in the Sunday morning news talk show field.

the video of the interview is 14 minutes long, and if you look at the episode transcript it was the very first thing they covered in the episode, in the "A block".

so Netanyahu gets 14 minutes of extremely valuable airtime, the A block of CNN's Sunday news show.

interviewing Netanyahu is a choice that CNN made. they could have interviewed someone else, such as someone who works for Doctors Without Borders, or a Palestinian who's had their entire family killed. but interviewing Netanyahu is apparently more "newsworthy", even if he lies during the interview.

then this article about how Netanyahu lied gets published on Monday, and the headline doesn't mention he lied, just does some "opinions differ as to whether it's raining" bullshit. if you want a fun challenge, go to the CNN homepage and see how far "below the fold" that article is - see if you can find that article at all without a direct link to it.