The MSM is, as I often say, propaganda. Even when they are conveying facts they include so much spin that you can get nauseous if you read too much of it.

And you can’t always be certain of the facts. As we have seen the New York Times chose to employ an actual Nazi to cover stories in Gaza, and everybody uses stats from Hamas when enumerating casualties in Gaza.

In order to give a great lesson in how even supposedly neutral stories can be filled with sly attempts to spin facts to benefit Hamas, this article from the Los Angeles Times fits the bill nicely. In fact, reading just a couple of paragraphs is enough to demonstrate my point.

This barbaric butchery — the worst the world has seen in recent memory — is what @ashleyahn88 @latimes euphemistically calls a "surprise offensive" (2/3)

— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) November 6, 2023

The article purports to report on a rally calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. I sincerely doubt that is all it was calling for since every pro-Palestinian rally has called for the eradication of Israel “from the river to the sea,” and the photo accompanying the story has a sign calling for “victory in the Palestinian struggle.” This is not about a cease-fire.

But let’s focus on the two paragraphs near the top of the story that caught my attention because they demonstrate how biased the entire approach to the story actually is. There is no ambiguity about the bias shown:

The protests come amid an escalating war between Israel and Hamas militants, who launched a surprise offensive from neighboring Gaza on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Since then, more than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, with Palestinian militants continuing to hold about 220 people hostage. More than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

So look at paragraph 1, in which the beginning of the war is described as “a surprise offensive,” making it sound like a military strike against military targets. That is what an offensive is in a war.

What really happened? The rape, murder, desecration, and kidnapping of civilians. All while filming it for public consumption, and bragging about their murders. Over the weekend Hamas even had a public premiere of the videos shot, at a rally outside a hospital. A snuff film for the pleasure of Hamas and the civilians who support them.

This was in Gaza tonight, near Al-Shifa hospital, where a public screening was held of Hamas attacks.

Two comments:

1. These are so-called innocent people of Gaza, joyously celebrating Hamas atrocities.

2. They seem to have plenty of electricity here.pic.twitter.com/6MudG479qG

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 5, 2023

Hamas wasn’t engaged in a military offensive, but a pogrom against civilians. And militaries don’t take hostages.

Everything they did was against the laws of war, which everybody somehow expects Israel to respect despite the fact that Hamas breaks just about every rule, including using human shields and basing their military personnel and weapons in hospitals.

Now look at paragraph 2, and see if you can detect all the bias, of which there is much:

Israelis died–using the passive tense, suggesting that there was no agency involved. The truth is that Hamas killed them.

Gazan casualties, whose numbers are provided by Hamas through the Gaza “Health Ministry,” are described as “mostly women and children” who were “killed.” No mention was made of the fact that the Israelis killed by Hamas were women, children, senior citizens, and people attending a rave. Who they were didn’t matter a whit.

In two paragraphs the reporter presented some amazing spin. Israelis “die”–could it be a heart attack? An accident? A drug overdose? They weren’t raped, baked alive, beheaded, and filmed for the enjoyment of their friends. No barbarity at all is described.

Palestinians were killed, by Israelis who were targeting women and children. No mention that Hamas is using civilians as human shield, or that even the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (not a nice group of guys either) claim that Hamas is killing civilians to blame the deaths on Israelis.

Mahmoud Habbash, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that Hamas is deliberately killing children and women in Gaza to damage Israel's image

The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank knows what Hamas is after fighting against them in 2007pic.twitter.com/PUHLhVYJeJ

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 5, 2023

If so–and I believe it is likely, and have seen a video of it happening–that puts a slightly different spin on things. Why didn’t Hector Becerra at least mention the accusation from fellow Palestinians?

You know why, and so do I.

Hold on, forget about what #Israel said tonight. Focus on what the head of the Palestinian Authority said before: 'The #Hamas leaders – and I say this for the first time – fled #Gaza to the Sinai in ambulances, leaving their people behind.' Did he say that Hamas terrorists used… pic.twitter.com/QmqjEthrdX

— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) November 3, 2023

The Western media for the most part has taken Hamas’ side in the war. There are exceptions. Jake Tapper went to Israel to watch the videos Hamas took of their rampage, and was shaken to the core by the experience. I am not a Tapper fan, but he was doing his job here, unlike so many others.

Graphic images show challenge of identifying Hamas attack victimshttps://t.co/J6y6jeY4E1

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 1, 2023

You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon to see that the MSM has chosen a side, whether it is from antisemitism (in some cases), ideology (in many cases), or just going with the flow (in most cases). Being anti-Israel is what the cool kids do. Most icky Right-wingers support Israel, so that can’t be good.

Whatever the reason, you can see the results: there is a simple story of victims and victimizers, and they tell you which is which. Israel bad. Palestinians good.