On Jewish Day of Mourning, Harrowing Hostage Videos Test Media’s Willingness To Tell the Full Story
On Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Israelis were shaken by a devastating video of hostage Evyatar David — emaciated, frail, and forced by Hamas to dig what he was told would be his own grave. Just two days earlier, Palestinian Islamic Jihad had released footage of hostage Rom Braslavski, whom his family said looked “on the verge of death” and had been “forgotten” in captivity.
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In an article for The Media Line, Back-to-Back Savage Videos Depict Emaciated Hostages, One Digging His Own Grave, Miriam Metzinger describes the agony of the hostages still held in Gaza, the anguish of their families, and their unrelenting captivity. In the coming days, the test will be whether international media will give these harrowing images the same prominence they have afforded other, far less verified claims. The New York Times, for example, ran a front-page story on a toddler they claimed was starving, a story later revealed to be about a child suffering from cystic fibrosis. The retraction was minimal and wasn’t even placed on their main social media account.
Will the images of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski be given equal space on front pages and prime broadcasts? One can only hope, but hope is a scarce resource these days.
