By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ
The Asbury Park Patch covers not only AP but also Ocean Grove. Their motto is “everything local.” And they claim to supply the “local news that matters” reported by “local journalists.”
They say, “See news from all the communities you love.”
We at Blogfinger recently commended them for their Ocean Grove coverage. But when writing about the Grove they only report headline news such as the cross-shaped pier and the Sunday beach closures. But I understand that news strategy.
However yesterday (11//2/23) in an obscene departure from their usual journalistic mission, they decided to present a report regarding the Israel-Hamas War. They never report outside of local news stories and they certainly don’t report on international news. But now their personal biases must have overwhelmed them.
Yesterday they subverted their usual mission in order to find a way to attack Israel by using a Muslim source that they should have ignored.
The Patch headline reads, “Israeli Forces Kill 10 of Official’s Family Members in Bombing.” They open with “Four generations of Franklin Township Sami Shaban’s family were lost when Israeli airstrikes dropped a bomb on his family’s home.” They don’t tell us the location of this home, but we learned later that it was in Gaza.
The Patch story is by Alexis Tarrazi, Patch Staff. Her prejudice is obvious. She obtained her information from a biased source: “The Council On American Islamic Relations of New Jersey. CAIR-NJ” represented by their communications manager Dina Sayedahmed.
This group held a news conference “to discuss Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.” The Patch was present. This is some of what this distorted “news” article reported:
“Just yesterday Israel bombed a refugee camp killing at least 400 Palestinians.”
“A staggering 40% of Palestinians that Israel killed just over the last few weeks alone are children.”
“To put that into perspective Israel kills at least one Palestinian child every 10 minutes.”
The article went on to discuss “Israeli aggressions” and the “right to freedom” of Palestinians.
She also said, “Israel has killed upward of 8,000 Palestinians over the last 4 weeks since launching its war in Gaza.”
Nowhere in the Patch’s coverage was there any mention of the Oct. 7 terrorism attacks by crazed radical Hamas murderers.
Also no coverage of all the Israeli’s who died and are still dying at the hands of Hamas savages including the scores of Israeli children murdered among the 1,400 innocent Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
And then there are the hostages which are similarly not included in the Patch article.
This Blogfinger post is not about the Israel-Hamas war because we don’t report on such stories, but we are interested in honest journalism. And we don’t deny that people on both sides are dying, and “collateral damage” occurs in all wars, but this particular report is reprehensible by being so one-sided and without documentation of quoted data.
Do you think the Patch will report about Jews who live in New Jersey and who have lost relatives in that war? Will they feature an. article on January 27, 2024 for International Holocaust Remembrance Day?
At the end of this Patch article : “Replies have been disabled on this article”
Feel free to comment on Blogfinger about our topic today: dishonest journalism by a local source. We won’t be reporting on or debating the Israel-Hamas war.
THE EAGLES. (Live in California.)