Gizmodo pushes casualty numbers from Gaza that had already been proven false
April 10, 2024
Gizmodo – like a lot of the media – is repeating provably false casualty numbers from Gaza. This is more of a problem than most are willing to admit.
Yes, of course there are civilian casualties. There’s a war on and that’s what happens in a war. This is also why, perhaps, not starting a war by invading your neighbor and killing teenage kids as a peace music festival is a good idea. But let us leave aside the causes here and concentrate instead on how bad the journalism is about it.
Gizmodo tells us of staff at Google protesting Google’s involvement in a contract with Israel. In the course of this they tell us this:
On October 7th, Hamas militants carried out an attack on Israel, kidnapping as many as 250 people, and killing around 1,200. Israel then launched a war on Hamas that has led to a massive civilian death toll. Since the start of the war, rights organizations estimate that Israel has killed as many as 30,000 Palestinians, including over 12,000 children.
Rights organizations do not estimate that. It’s a simple repetition of the numbers coming from the Gaza Ministry of Health. Which is controlled, of course, by Hamas. Which is where the problem is.
As we’ve pointed out several times we cannot trust reporting out of Gaza. Not because Palestinians are inherently untrustworthy or anything stupid like that. But because all the reporting is being done by people who actually live there. Under the power of Hamas – who, as we all now agree, did launch that terrorist attack on the peace music festival and kill the kids and take those hostages.
Reporting the bare unvarnished truth out of a place under the control of those sorts of people, well, it’s not going to happen is it? And, of course, because Hamas knows where the reporters are, where their families are, that bare truth doesn’t get reported.
This is something we should all know by now. And when it comes to casualty figures it gets worse. For they are coming from Hamas itself. Folk who will kill and kidnap kids – we should trust their own reporting, should we?
Well, no. The numbers that are coming out simply cannot be true. No, not in the sense of cannot because that’s awful, but cannot in the sense that they simply cannot be true.
Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.
If Hamas’ numbers are faked or fraudulent in some way, there may be evidence in the numbers themselves that can demonstrate it. While there is not much data available, there is a little, and it is enough.
We really do know enough about statistics to be able to know when someone is faking them. Which is what is happening here. But our problem is that supposed journalists like those at Gizmodo keep repeating these known to be wrong numbers. That’s not how journalism is supposed to work, not right at all.
Would any of us have believed German casualty numbers coming out of Berlin in 1944? So why is the American media giving any credence to those coming from Hamas?