In the 1930s, the New York Times had a journalist named Walter Duranty win the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the still newly constituted Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Duranty was praised for his in-depth reporting, and progressives at the time used his work to support their case for communism in the United States. There was one problem: Duranty was a communist sympathizer, and he lied about tragedies like the widespread Soviet famine, especially Holodomor, where the Soviets murdered millions of Ukrainians.

While what Duranty did was an abomination, it at least makes sense from an ideological standpoint. He was a communist sympathizer sticking up for communist countries. He wanted that system in place in the United States. Notably, the New York Times has never given up Duranty's Pulitzer Prize. But if that's the case for Duranty, what's the reasoning for why Western media is openly parroting the talking points of Hamas?

Walter Duranty was a useful idiot for the Soviets and held their beliefs. Hamas exists for one reason: the complete eradication of all Jews worldwide. It's in the Hamas charter; this is not some deep, dark secret. If a journalist is a useful idiot for Hamas, they're more than just an idiot. Hamas wants the death of Jews, and anyone uncritically accepting anything Hamas says is explicitly siding with a death cult.

Hamas Is A Death Cult

I don't use that phrase lightly. Hamas is seeking the active deaths of two groups: Jews and Palestinians. When Hamas tells Palestinians not to evacuate, blocks evacuation routes, or worse, targets those roads for attacks, they're stating what they want.

While some of Hamas's most brutal tactics, like systematic rape and beheading captives, are long-practiced atrocities for which the armies of Stalin, Hitler, and Genghis Khan are infamous, it is unprecedented for a party to adopt a war strategy to maximize civilian deaths on its own side. This is so strange and evil that it should appall any decent person. Contrary to conventional commentary, this is not a human shield strategy. It's a human sacrifice strategy.

This is who Hamas is. There's no doubting it, and journalists playing along are siding with that strategy.

This point was driven further home by the missile explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Early reports said Israel had conducted an airstrike against the hospital, allegedly killing as many as 500 innocent civilians. Naturally, all predictable corners of the left blasted Israel for the attack.

Western Press Lies About Hospital

And then the truth started coming out. Independent Open Intelligence outfits start geolocating the rocket's origination point using videos, pictures, and other public data. It became clear the projectile originated in Palestinian space, was either shot down or fell apart, and landed on the hospital in question.

Then we learned that Hamas had listed several targets in Israel as places to hit with missiles just before the events occurred and announced this on telegram. The twist is that The Israel Defense Force (IDF) finally came out with their assessment. They agreed that it originated in Palestinian space in Gaza, but they said it wasn't a Hamas rocket; it was a third group: the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.

The damage was done, though. American and Israeli embassies across the Middle East are swarmed with protestors. Hamas and Hezbollah called the strike a war crime and called for more days of rage. These terrorist groups could fan these flames because Western media outlets and Hamas sympathizers in places like Congress all jumped on the chance to blast Israel.

Journalists Blood Libel Jews

John Podhoretz observed in Commentary the American press did Hamas's job for it. "Many decades ago, when Palestinians were massacred by Lebanese militiamen, an Israeli leader was alleged to have muttered, "Goyim kill goyim and they blame the Jews." For this he was roundly denounced, and obviously, speaking in such terms about a horrible killing spree was, at the very least, inappropriate. But today, unless the IDF is very wrong, we literally have a situation in which Palestinians murdered Palestinians by the hundreds—and they blamed, or tried to blame, the Jews. That's who they are."

This isn't a case of the media rushing to report something. The press ran to print precisely the words bloodthirsty terrorists bent on murdering Jews wanted them to say. US journalists were useful idiots for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. Only when the hard facts started coming out did some outlets start changing their tune. They could have easily reported the event as an explosion at a hospital and waited for evidence. Instead, the press actively sought to blame Jews. 

Podhoretz is exactly right. A Palestinian Islamic terrorist group murdered Palestinians at a hospital in an effort to kill innocent Jewish civilians. And the people at fault are the Jews, according to the American media. This is the very definition of a blood libel - Jews are accused of murdering innocents, which is an excuse to cover the terrorist activities of evil groups. 

Walter Duranty's excuse is that he was a communist sticking up for the Soviets. What is the media's excuse today, uncritically reporting anything a death cult says to them? They're more than useful idiots, that's for sure.