Indication of Journalistic Malfeasance in CNN Report Accusing Israel of Murdering Shireen Abu Aqleh

Last week, I eviscerated the CNN “report” that concluded Israel deliberately killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh. I highlighted not just some evidentiary issues, but also the biases of the so-called “experts” and witnesses quoted – not to mention the journalists who put it together.

Blogger EoZ (tipped off by a reader) points to this tweet from Gianluca Mezzofiore – one of the investigative journalists behind the report – which shows he was aware there were terrorists near where Abu Aqleh was before he co-authored the report :

EoZ goes on to explain:

The main evidence that Israel was responsible for her death is seen in this CNN graphic:

The militants to the southeast, who were exactly the correct distance to have shot her are simply airbrushed out of history. It isn’t like CNN mentioned them and dismissed them as possible shooters – they don’t even mention them as existing, saying that the only recorded positions of any Palestinian militants were due south of Abu Akleh.

That is a provable lie.

The article reiterates this:

[A]n investigation by CNN offers new evidence — including two videos of the scene of the shooting — that there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death.

We can no longer assume that CNN was not aware of the video showing other militants. It was aware and actively decided not to mention them.

And then claim that they never existed. 

EoZ then goes on to show how CNN cannot credibly claim to have discounted the video based on a calculation of the time of day by analyzing the position of the sun’s shadow(!).

EoZ really deserves a huge amount of credit for his efforts to uncover the truth (but please stop referring to them as ‘militants’ and not ‘terrorists’). After initially concluding that the IDF did likely kill Abu Aqleh (albeit accidentally), EoZ reacted to this rebuttal by Israellycool reader Jon by accepting the insufficiencies of his earlier post and doubling down to examine all available evidence even deeper. If only the likes of CNN went to these same lengths to uncover the truth.

Alas, the problem is, their goal does not seem to be to uncover the truth, but rather to create a contrivance in order to find Israel guilty at all costs. And thanks to their report and those of other mainstream media organizations, the damage has already been done.

So I fear the efforts of EoZ and other internet sleuths are largely in vain. How many regular people who are not Israel-supporters are going to take the time to read these long-but-important posts, which basically show everything else they have read until now about the incident is a lie?

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