Why Is Reuters Not Able To Correctly Report Number Of Murdered People?

I’m sorry in advance for the macabre topic, but it has to be pointed out that worldwide wire service Reuters gets confused when counting beyond 3.

In January this year, right after the INS published the terror report for 2013, Reuters reported  the death of would-be terrorist Muhammad Mubarak, and casually inserted in their article the following sentence:

Violence in the West Bank has increased in recent months, and at least 19 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the occupied territory since U.S.-brokered peace talks resumed in July.

The number of murdered Israelis is wrong. It should have said 3.

Of the six Israelis killed in terror attacks in 2013, five were killed in the West Bank – as opposed to 2012, when all of the 10 Israeli fatalities from terror attacks took place inside the Green Line. Of those killed, three were civilians and three were members of the security forces.

Let’s count to 6:

1. April 30th, Stabbing attack that killed Evyatar Borowski, in Tapuach.
2. September 30th, Sergeant Tomer Hazan was kidnapped to Qlaqiya and murdered.
3. September 22nd, Staff Sergeant Kobi Gal was sniped in Hebron.
4. October 10th, Colonel (res.) Sarya Ofer was murdered in Brosh Habik’aa.
5. November 13th, Corporal Eden Atias was stabbed to death on a bus in Afula.
6. December 24th, Salah Abu Ltayef was sniped in Nahal Oz.

In underscore are the deaths after July, and in bold are the deaths in Judea and Samaria, AKA “the occupied territory”. Afula and Nahal Oz were not conquered by Jordanian or Egyptian forces.

1. April 30th, Stabbing attack that killed Evyatar Borowski, in Tapuach.
2. September 30th, Sergeant Tomer Hazan was kidnapped to Qlaqiya and murdered.
3. September 22nd, Staff Sergeant Kobi Gal was sniped in Hebron.
4. October 10th, Colonel (res.) Sarya Ofer was murdered in Brosh Habik’aa.
5. November 13th, Corporal Eden Atias was stabbed to death on a bus in Afula.
6. December 24th, Salah Abu Ltayef was sniped in Nahal Oz.

Lets count: 1.. 2.. 3..

That wasn’t difficult was it?

So why isn’t Reuters capable of the same first grade math?

I contacted several of their writers on Twitter, but the factual error remains.

.@AFilan Factual error in article, only 3 Israelis killed in Judea and Samaria after peace talks started. Ofer, Hazan and Kobi @CAMERAorg

— Judge Dan (@JudgeDan48) January 29, 2014

Fast forward to Friday, when France arrested Mehdi Nemmouche, the perpetrator of the Brussels Jewish Museum anti-Semitic terror attack. Here’s how Reuters reported it:

 A 29-year-old Frenchman believed to have returned recently from fighting with Islamist militant rebels in Syria has been arrested for the killing of three people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum last month, prosecutors said on Sunday.

The number of people he killed is wrong, It should have said 4.

Four people were killed at a Jewish museum in Belgium on Saturday in an attack that European Jewish leaders are already comparing to 2012’s massacre at the Ozar HaTorah school in Toulouse, France.

The attack, which took place at the Jewish Museum in central Brussels on Saturday, is being approached as racially motivated by Belgian authorities, who posited that it was motivated by anti-Semitism.

Let’s count to 4:

1. Emmanuel Riva.
2. Miriam Riva.
3. Dominique Sabrier.
4. Alexandre Strens.

Let’s count: 1.. 2.. 3.. 4..

That wasn’t difficult was it?

So why isn’t Reuters, (and BBC) capable of the same first grade math?

If wire services can’t count, and get basic fact wrong, who knows what other factual errors, lies and fallacies they print.