Posted on 08/02/2006 7:18:25 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
As Hezbollah wins support throughout the Middle East in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike that killed at least 57 Lebanese civilians over the weekend, an alternative view of the attack is emerging in blogs -- that the incident was actually staged by Hezbollah.
This "story" is a useful companion to last week's post about watching the war as it unfolds on the Web. The Qana conspiracy theory not only underscores how the Internet can misinform (an old story), it also reveals a popular demand for online content that attempts to explain away news reports that Israel (and by proxy, its closest ally and arms supplier, the United States) was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women and children in a Hezbollah stronghold.
At a time when American and Israeli public opinion of the war diverge radically from the world opinion elsewhere, the emergence of a right-wing equivalent of the Sept. 11 conspiracy theories is worth noting.........."
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
---Confronted with photographs of dead children, Israeli Insider's Korvet insisted they must be something else: "The victims were non-residents who chose to shelter in the building that night," he writes. "They were 'too poor' to leave the down, one resident told CNN's [Jon] Wedeman. Who were these people?"
That question has been definitively answered in the mainstream press. Almost all of the victims belonged to two extended families, the Hashems and the Shalhoubs, who lived in the area, according to the independent accounts of The Washington Post's Anthony Shadid and the Daily Star's Nicholas Blanford.---
So where were the grieving relatives pushing in on all sides of the rescue site, Morley? It appeared from the photographs that the only ones there were "reporters", "photographers", and "rescuers". Where were the grieving extended families, numnuts?
Nailed it bump.
This is entirely fluff, predicated on arrogance.
"Confronted with photographs of dead children, Israeli Insider's Korvet insisted they must be something else:"
Below are the two Israeli Insider pieces dealing with Qana.
Hezbollywood? Evidence mounts that Qana collapse and deaths were staged
There is a photo of a dead child in this one.
Lebanese report: Hezbollah planted disabled children in basement to die
And in this one as well.
He just hacked the piece out. At no time did Korvet deny dead children. The question is how did they get there?
Another thing occurs to me. How credible would these "relatives" be anyway?
In other words, we're not qualified to analyze the news, like he is.
-PJ
Ink has become much less relevant than when that was first written. Now even owning a TV network doesn't carry as much weight as it once did.
Almost anyone can afford electrons by the mega-mole.
---Another thing occurs to me. How credible would these "relatives" be anyway?---
More credible than what we have seen anyway. Can you believe that these people just left 19 children behind or that if they were in the area wouldn't mob the site, carrying on hysterically? This whole thing just looks unreal. They should have hired some professionals to set it up. There's too much that just doesn't fit.
Even if the whole thing was real, the fact that they posed the children reduces it to propaganda. I took only one semester of journalism, but I learned that you don't pose or reenact news photos.
And now we hear the AP and others defend their little dog and pony show, and it seems their main defense is to declare anyone that has doubts to be a kook or a conspiracy buff.
Ping
"underscores how the Internet can misinform (an old story)", Well I guess they should know if anyone does, since they do it constantly.
Yes, we do. Explosives in the building.
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