When organized crime wants to hide profits from their criminal enterprises, they launder it through seemingly legitimate business, and after a step or two, the money is clean.
Unfortunately, CNN is trying the same trick with casualty reporting from Gaza. Here’s their problem: many people are justifiably skeptical about any claims by Hamas – after all, if Hamas is willing to engage in barbaric mass murder, lying doesn’t seem like that big a leap for them.
So what to do about Hamas-reported deaths in the Gaza fighting triggered by Hamas’s mass slaughter of Israelis? CNN’s answer – launder the questionable Hamas claims through the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which at least has a better reputation than the Gaza terrorist group (yes, it’s a low bar).
Of course, this is ridiculous — since the Palestinian Authority was kicked out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007 it has had no sources for Gaza casualty figures, save for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. That is, Gaza casualty figures from the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah are just relabeled casualty figures from Hamas.
Despite this, since October 31 CNN has, at least 35 times, tried to shore up the Hamas claims by using the phrase “according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawing from sources in the Hamas-controlled territory,” or close variations thereof.
Those “sources,” though CNN is laboring mightily not to say it, is one source — Hamas itself.
Characteristically, Christiane Amanpour went even further in her broadcast on November 8, omitting even a mention of Hamas, telling viewers “over 4300 children have been killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.”
CNN should come clean and stop laundering the Gaza casualty data, including by noting that Hamas hides behind civilians because it wants to claim as many civilian deaths as possible – it’s a major part of their strategy.