Israelis were reeling yesterday from a spate of Palestinian terror attacks around the country, in which one American tourist was murdered, and around 15 people were injured, some critically. Three Palestinian terrorists were killed before they could cause any more harm to innocent people.
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HonestReporting immediately highlighted several headline fails that either portrayed the Palestinian attackers as victims, refused to mention who carried out the attacks, or in one case bizarrely referred to “Israeli stabbing violence.”
Not wanting to be outdone, CNN played its part with this contribution:
Why the scare quotes? What exactly is so in doubt that CNN can’t call out a terrorist for what he actually is? Why the reluctance to hold Palestinian terrorists accountable? When it happens in any other country there is no hesitation in referring to terrorists and terror attacks. It seems that it’s only a question when the targets are Israeli Jews, as though they are any less victims than citizens of other countries.
The inappropriate quotation marks weren’t only in the headline though. Later in the article, it said:
So CNN was able to report as fact that 10 people were taken to hospital to be treated, but apparently the word “murdered” was deemed too strong or subjective to describe what happened, without using quotation marks. Why was it necessary to go to measures to avoid stating outright the undeniable fact that an American tourist, Taylor Force, was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist?
1 person murdered in Jaffa stabbing attack. 10 people taken to hospital being treated. Knife used by attacker found. pic.twitter.com/Cv3DG2ns36
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) March 8, 2016
Only later did CNN share Rosenfeld’s tweet in its entirety, and changed the headline to state terror attack without the scare quotes – although it phrased it as “Israel terror attack,” when Palestinian terror attack would have been more accurate.
