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Speaking of the Wall Street Journal, as Steve does in a nearby post, I ask readers to consider that the Journal is one of the outlets that is certifiably reliable according to NewsGuard. Would that it were so.

To take one example that has gotten under my skin, consider its reporting on Israel’s war on Hamas. The Journal was one of many certifiably reliable outlets — see them lined up here — that disgraced itself in the Gaza City hospital fiasco.

This week the Journal carried on with publication of the photograph below at the top of page 11 on July 11. It strikes me as one of those photographs that was staged for the benefit of the photographer.

The cutline on the photograph as published by the Journal reads: “DESPAIR: Women mourn relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday. The strike, which Israel said targeted a Hamas militant, killed at least 25 when it struck a school building where thousands were sheltering, according to Palestinian health officials. A7 ABED RAHIM KHATIB/ DPA/ ZUMA PRESS.” The story by Jared Malsin on page A7 is headlined “Israel Calls on Civilians to Leave Gaza City After Deadly Strike on School Building in South.” The second paragraph reads:

An airstrike in southern Gaza on Tuesday, which Israel said targeted a Hamas militant, killed at least 25 people when it struck a school building where thousands were sheltering according to Palestinian health officials. That highlighted the fighting’s relentless toll on civilians despite Israel’s contention that it is moving to a lower-intensity phase of war.

Well, maybe. However, it seems to me a little late in the day to regurgitate any statement of fact by “Palestinian health officials” without more. Nevertheless, deeper into the story the “Palestinian health officials” strike again: “Israel’s war in Gaza has since killed more than 38,000 people, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials.”

You have got to be kidding me.

Even the Associated Press seems to be aware that the credibility of “Palestinian health officials” may be in doubt. In the AP story on the same airstrike, Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magda report in the fifth paragraph:

The strike at the entrance to the school killed at least 25 people, according to an Associated Press reporter who counted the bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said the dead included at least seven women and children and that the toll was likely to rise.

An AP video of arrivals at the hospital posted at YouTube has the number killed at “[m]ore than a dozen” in the caption beneath the video.

Despite the counting of bodies at the hospital by one of the AP reporters, the New York Times upped the total to “at least 27” — according to “Gazan authorities.” The Times also links to an Al Jazeera video of the strike posted on X. NBC News posts the video above its story on the strike.

The Euronews story posted here by Yahoo! News takes the death toll to 29. The Guardian sees the 29 of Euronews and raises it to “at least 31 people.”

The IDF is reportedly investigating. I think it’s safe to say that the truth, whatever it is, will never catch up with the statements of “Palestinian health officials” and “Gaza authorities” supplied by certifiably reliable outlets. The fog of war explains a lot, but it doesn’t account for the role of the free press as a mouthpiece for Hamas.

Today comes news that the IDF targeted Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif in another deadly airstrike. There will be more along the lines of the stories on the airstrike discussed above.