I have remained steadfastly sceptical with regard to 'news' reporting from Gaza. Even so-called reporters from my (ex)mate Rupe's SKY NEWS have been a disappointment not least because none of them have been expelled! Commonsense tells you, and Douglas Murray at The Coffee House confirms, that any reporter inside Gaza will have a Hamas 'minder' by his side to ensure that only that which is acceptable is reported. Fair enough, that's not the fault of the journo but, again as Murray comments, normally in that sort of situation they make it clear to their viewers that they are reporting under restrictions.
Yet I can think of no example during this conflict when reporters for any major broadcaster have told the truth – which is that if they stay in Gaza they are only able to tell Hamas’s account of this conflict (complete with ‘deliberate’ Israeli targetting and only ever ‘innocent’, never ‘guilty’ victims). There will be those who think this a small technical point. But I suspect this is one major reason why some surprising Western observers seem to have become so rancidly pro-Hamas during this conflict.
It is an irony of mouth-watering deliciousness that so far the only reporter who mentioned that Hamas was actually firing rockets, and who was instantly expelled, worked for - Russia Today, Vlad's 'house magazine'! Actually, since Murray's article appeared, I picked up from those rascals at IHTM a report from The Blaze concerning a Finnish 'girlie' reporter who admitted that she had seen a rocket being fired from the backyard of the 'hospital' which was consequently attacked by the IDF. I suppose if she was speaking Finnish her Hamas minder didn't understand, or, given the way most 'Yerdie-durbles' speak English that would have been even more incomprehensible! Anyway, her story eventually seeped out and now she has gone all hysterical and accused Israeli sympathisers for using her story as propaganda - yes, quite, what do they teach 'em at journalist colleges these days?
Anyway, I don't need to remind you lot what the first casualty of war is!
