Jezebel attacks Amy Schumer for telling the truth because they don’t support the facts she’s sharing.
Of course, free speech means you can attack anyone for anything, but there’s a duty for the media to avoid misinformation along the way.
Except there’s not too much to misunderstand about what Schumer has previously said about Gaza. In October, after Hamas attacked Israel and took 200 Israelis hostages and Israel responded by bombarding Gaza and killing thousands of people within days, Schumer shared multiple inflammatory posts on Instagram. One post stated that “Gazans rape Jewish girls” and mocked pro-Palestine activists with a cartoon depicting someone carrying a sign that said, “PROUD OF OUR RAPIST MARTYRS.” She shared a separate post claiming without evidence that Palestinians, not Israeli forces, bombed their own hospital, killing dozens.
The problem with attacking Schumer for saying these things is that they are true. The rape claims, for example:
Five months after the October 7 attacks, the United Nations has announced it has found reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas fighters and others engaged in the attacks committed crimes of sexual violence including rape, gang rape and other conflict-related sexual crimes.
The Associated Press is publishing an updated visual analysis of the Oct. 17 explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital. The AP initially assessed that the explosion was likely caused by a rocket launched from within Gaza that misfired, and that assessment has not changed.
So why attack Schumer for saying these things? Because by attacking Schumer it is possible to cast doubt on the truths. As with the “Hamas attacked Israel” and leaving out that the attacks killed some 1,200 people. Why would you leave that out unless it is to make the reaction, the “killing thousands of people” seem all the more monstrous?
Which does make it true that there’s not much to misunderstand about what Schumer has said – she’s said the truth. Despite that Jezebel struggles mightily to do exactly that misunderstanding. To cast that shade on someone merely retailing reality.
Presumably this is done for some political reason. And yes, free speech does mean that you can shade in order to mislead. But the press, the media, is supposed to be better than that. To not mislead or disinform.
Of course, we could conclude that Jezebel is being vilely antisemitic. Which isn’t misinformation, per se, but it is something we should criticize them for.
This article originally appeared on Accuracy in Media. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
