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Media Turn Civilian ISIS Victims in Beirut Into Hezbollah Human Shields

By Ben Norton

When civilians are killed, media reaction is often contingent upon who did the killing and why. Instead of blanketly condemning such attacks, the bombing of civilians can be implicitly justified if those civilians were in the wrong place at the wrong time—say, in a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, or, more recently, in a neighborhood in Lebanon.
Two ISIS suicide bombers killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 230 in attacks on a heavily Shia Muslim community in Beirut on November 12. This was the worst attack on the city in years.

The vast majority of the victims were civilians, not armed militants—but many media headlines obscured this.

“Deadly Blasts Hit Hezbollah Stronghold in Southern Beirut,” declared the New York Times (11/12/15). Absent from this headline were crucial facts—namely, that this supposed “stronghold” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is in fact a busy civilian area, and moreover that dozens of civilians were killed in the attacks.

You can find the full text of this article here.


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Filed under: conflict zones, latest, Media Criticism
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Media Turn Civilian ISIS Victims in Beirut Into Hezbollah Human Shields | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News
Nov 16, 2015 4:14 AM

[…] Source: Media Turn Civilian ISIS Victims in Beirut Into Hezbollah Human Shields […]

falcemartello
falcemartello
Nov 15, 2015 9:57 PM

A continuation of their morally and intellectually based hypocracy.More Orwellian twist in the western MSM. Its the palestians fault for the occupation of the west bank. 120 western killed and the west is all over it One Israeli killed the west is all over it 12 killed in Afghanistan by the USA drones didnt hear a thing. Mussolini is so happy in his hellish gtrave seeing the west has adopted everything he strived for. Yesterdays news gets wrapped in todays fish.

yalensis
yalensis
Nov 15, 2015 9:22 PM

A human face for some of the victims; and the story of a local hero.

Yep. Western MSM almost makes it sound like these ordinary folks had it coming. What with living in a “Shiite neighborhood” that is a “Hezbollah stronghold”. Fair game, indeed.

susannapanevin
susannapanevin
Nov 15, 2015 9:29 AM

Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.