"40 beheaded babies" : How media amplified an unconfirmed story

"Headlines Matter."

I previously posted, Source of dubious ‘beheaded babies’ claim is Israeli settler leader who incited riots to 'wipe out' Palestinian village by Max Blumenthal and Alex Rubenstein with some additional information which I recommend reading.

Whilst I was looking for information on another subject today, I came across the following video from Middle East Eye which, in my opinion, provides an excellent analysis of how the legacy media did not properly check the source(s) for their “40 beheaded babies” headlines which were promulgated worldwide.

Description for the 12th October video:

On Wednesday, the world woke up to newspapers plastered with a horrific headline about ‘40 babied decapitated by Hamas’.

But was the story true? And does it matter?

We dig into the dizzying, circular debate around the darkest story of an already devastating week and ask whether journalists fulfilled their duty to fact-check it, or instead helped Israel justify its policy of ‘collective punishment’ in Gaza.

I feel that the conclusion of the analysis is well worth repeating:

Headlines matter. And in war, the battle over headlines is a fight to control the narrative.

Journalists must always hold their head above the fray. It is our job to distinguish fact from fiction because the words we publish matter and their impacts cannot simply be retracted.

This week is a perfect example of what happens when journalism fails. And as this war drags on, we must hold ourselves to a much higher standard.

This is one well informed comment on the video: “When you come across unverified assertions that provoke emotional reactions, it's important to critically consider whose agenda is being promoted and what the potential motivations behind it could be.”

War propaganda in particular is incredibly powerful and and purposefully written to manipulate emotions. We must all keep this in mind as we hold the controlled legacy media to account during this time of great upheaval.

Related post:

"Source of dubious ‘beheaded babies’ claim is Israeli settler leader who incited riots to 'wipe out' Palestinian village" by Max Blumenthal & Alex Rubenstein