How do you deal with a “news” organization that interviews you, and then slices/dices the interview so it can show you talking, but the words you are saying do not accurately reflect what you said?
What am I talking about? I’ll let the Jewish News Service (jns.org) show you, via its article about U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s August 7th interview on CBS “news”, and it was then cut/edited.
Here is how the article starts:
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticized CBS News on Friday for selectively editing a recent interview with him, conveying a different message than the one he expressed in the full conversation.
“Ever wonder how the media edits an interview to give you a different story than the one they had?” Huckabee tweeted.
The diplomat then added a link to the full transcript on the U.S. embassy website, providing readers the opportunity to identify the misleading edits for themselves.
The interview was aired on Aug. 7 and conducted by CBS News’ Debora Patta, who has interviewed individuals attempting to undermine the Jewish state’s moral status, such as the director of “Breaking the Silence,” an Israeli NGO dedicated to alleging Israel Defense Forces war crimes.
The less-than-four-minute broadcasted interview begins with Patta asking Huckabee whether he is “deeply troubled by images of starving children.”
Huckabee replies, “I’m moved when the photos are verified.”
The reporter follows by insisting that “there are real images,” to which the American official says, “Oh, I think that there are certainly people suffering in Gaza.”
In the full exchange, Huckabee answered as follows: “I’m moved when the photos are verified. I mean, we’re all moved when you see someone, especially a child who’s starving. But The New York Times published a picture on the front page of what was purported to be a starving child. Turns out the child had a birth defect and had not been starving.
“There were other pictures, for example, that were published of starving children in Gaza. Turned out one of them was from Yemen. One was from 2017. There was another photo that appeared to be somewhat staged, with photographer all set up to get pictures of a few people herded into a small area …”
At this point Patta interrupted, asking about “real images.”
Huckabee articulated a reason for people’s suffering in Gaza, which was elided.
“Part of the reason is, is because you’ve had pallets and trucks full of food that the U.N. won’t take in because they say they don’t want military escort from IDF, but they say it’s not safe, and 87% of their own food every time they do take it in gets hijacked and looted. That’s their numbers. Those aren’t mine. I didn’t make that up. That’s what they report.
“So there’s not been a lack of food or even a lack of attempt. It’s been an inefficient way of getting it in. It’s been a problem because you have a terror organization who is stealing it, looting it, and then turning around and selling it to the people who are hungry,” Huckabee said in the full transcript.
The article goes on to cite a number of other specific instances in which Ambassador Huckabee’s responses were contorted to create an answer far removed from what he actually said.
I urge you to use both links – the one for this article and the one for the unedited transcript of Huckabees full answers – to see what a disgraceful hit job CBS “news” created.
And then, remember that CBS is far from the only media venue offering its viewers “journalists” of this, er, quality who are doing the same thing.
This is what Israel deals with every day.
