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As Israel continues to wage a defensive war against the terrorists who invaded and slaughtered hundreds of Jews on October 7, the Jewish State is under attack as never before in the West. I found this out for myself when I was invited on to Piers Morgan Uncensored to discuss the situation in Gaza.
What my appearance and censorship on the ironically named “Uncensored” show demonstrated was a refusal, perhaps even a fear, to hear the reality, the facts and the law when it comes to the war against Hamas. This is in stark contrast to the disinformation and falsehoods about Israel that have been freely disseminated on that show – and elsewhere in the media – by those who oppose Israel.
My crime was to suggest that we should wait for an investigation to take place into the alleged deaths of a number of children in Gaza. On May 23, the home of two doctors and their children was reportedly hit by an Israeli air strike. Several children, we’re told, died in the raid. Yet when I called into question why artificially-generated imagery was used to promote this story, I was shouted down. Here’s the full exchange:
Piers Morgan: Wait a minute, you don’t believe that those children were killed?
Natasha Hausdorff: I have seen conflicting accounts and I want that story to be properly investigated…
PM: Wow.
NH: –before the international media runs with it.
PM: You think those two parents — one of whom, I think, operated on one of the children — you think that those two doctors, the parents, they just made it up–
NH: Why are those children there?
PM: –that nine of their 10 children had been blown to pieces by an Israeli air strike?
NH: If this is true–
PM: You don’t believe it?
NH: Why on earth was artificially-generated imagery used to promote this story when it first happened? We’ve seen time and time again–
PM: I gotta say, I think what you’ve just said about that family is despicable. I’m sorry. It’s despicable.
Being interrupted and harangued, or even having my volume turned down or line cut, is not a new experience for me in “interviews”. It has always been a clear indication that the individuals involved in this unprofessional conduct were out of their depth and at a loss as to how to engage with the evidence I had presented. Nor, indeed, am I the only one experiencing such treatment. Any individual who does not subscribe to the virulently anti-Israel agenda, and who is asked to comment on broadcast media, will have experienced similar playground antics. It is demonstrative of a catastrophic failure by the media to do its job and an abject absence of journalistic integrity.
The pathetic display this week by Piers Morgan demonstrates that he is a significant part of the problem of disinformation about this conflict. Morgan should be well aware that there have been repeated stories emerging from Gaza which have subsequently been debunked only after they spread around the world. The predictable result has been the poisoning of many minds against Israel, on the basis of fabrications and blood libels. My simple entreaty was that the matter should not be prejudged, especially where fake AI generated images had been deployed to support it. Cue frenzied outrage and bile from Morgan.
Defence of fake images in pursuit of a “good story” is, of course, old ground for Morgan. He was dismissed from his role as editor of the Daily Mirror in 2004, following the publication of photographs that purportedly showed British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. The images were later determined to be staged and not taken in Iraq. Morgan stood by their publication and refused to issue an apology on the basis there was no firm evidence that they were fake, though the newspaper did, acknowledging that it had been the victim of a “calculated and malicious hoax” and expressing deep regret for the reputational damage caused to the British Army. Morgan’s defence of his decision to publish those fake pictures stemmed from his opposition to the Iraq war in a disgraceful example of “the ends justify the means”.
Did he learn anything from that shameful incident? The way I was treated on Uncensored suggests not. At least when Morgan was in the employ of a national newspaper, he could be held accountable. But this no longer appears to be the case. He is now free to shout down his guests without consequence.
The problem doesn’t stop with Morgan. The unfair way in which Israel is presented in the Western media, and the refusal to treat Hamas’s claims with scepticism, misleads the public. It increases the threat of violence to Jews around the world, but also, crucially, props up and encourages Hamas, thereby prolonging the war and the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
