Snapped Shot

Here's a fascinating tidbit from the coverage over the recent death of two children in the Gaza Strip that we wrote about yesterday, courtesy CAMERA Snapshots (no relation):

In the print edition of Ha'aretz today, Avi Issacharoff reports on the death of two Arab children in Beit Lahiya, ages 8 and 6, hit by a Palestinian rocket that fell short. He wrote:

No group claimed responsibility. Palestinian journalists, however, were pressured to report that the children were killed by an Israeli bombardment.

One hopes that this will lead to a new era in journalistic restraint!

Update: I was a little rushed on posting this article, so let me try to clarify things a bit: What's significant about CAMERA's find is that, even after being pressured by the Palestinians (Hamas, in this case) to report that these deaths were Israel's Fault™, the reporters on-site investigated things on their own and came to the (correct) conclusion that this was a self-afflicted tragedy. It's encouraging, because this is the first time in my memory that anyone has really challenged the Palestinian party line significantly. (There have been other cases where the press initially followed along, and then changed as the situation became more obvious, but this is the first time in memory where the initial step of credulity has been skipped.)

So again, I welcome this new journalistic restraint! May it continue indefinitely!