I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.

— Oscar Wilde

CNN insists that the Gaza video is genuine, and they’ve reposted it. This is their only response to the criticism that the “CPR” shown in the video is an obvious pantomime:

Responding to accusations that the resuscitation efforts of Mashharawi’s brother appeared inauthentic, Martin said that, based on his years of reporting from Gaza, doctors often go through such efforts even with little hope that a patient can be saved.

If they really had “little hope” the patient could be saved, they’d be going all out with CPR, which means very vigorous chest compression (it’s not unusual to break ribs if it’s done right), and ventilation to oxygenate the blood—not delicately touching the boy’s abdomen with the tips of their fingers as we see in the video clips.

UPDATE at 1/9/09 5:50:34 pm:

For reference, here are three versions of the report we’re looking at.

First, an edited, shortened version of the full report:

Second, the version of the report posted by the UK’s Channel 4.

Third, the full report posted at CNN’s website.

UPDATE at 1/9/09 6:34:14 pm:

CNN now responds to the charge that Mashharawi worked for a company that operates Hamas websites:

Martin said accusations that Mashharawi owns a company that hosts Hamas Web sites were falsely based on Mashharawi having worked at a company that created the PS suffix to allow anyone of any political persuasion to create Palestinian Web sites.

According to Internet Haganah’s database of terror website hosts, in 2004 nepras.net, which lists Mashharawi as general manager, was the operator of the main Hamas website and the website of Hamas’ radio station Voice of Al Aqsa.

UPDATE at 1/9/09 6:51:37 pm:

This is the website of World News & Features, cited by CNN as a reliable source for news from Gaza. Please excuse me while I laugh.

I just did a spot for PJTV on that staged video from a Gaza hospital, and some questions that came up:

Why hasn’t CNN made any kind of statement about this? They yanked the video from the page where it was posted, so obviously they know there’s a problem. Are they just hoping the whole thing will blow over, and counting on the rest of the media to let it?

Whatever happened to the idea that news organizations should correct, admit, and take responsibility for errors? Is CNN more worried about the political fallout, or the loss of access to Gaza, than they are about their credibility?

Again, here’s the page where the video was posted; there’s no explanation or retraction for promoting what is almost certainly pure Hamas propaganda: Toll of conflict strikes home as cameraman finds brother dead - CNN.com.

They may have removed the video player from their page, but the video itself still resides on a CNN server, and I saved the link. Here’s the video, playing from a publicly available URL on a CNN server:

UPDATE at 1/9/09 3:05:27 pm:

The Daily Kos Kiddies jump up to defend this propaganda, even after CNN has pulled the video offline (gotta love it): Daily Kos: LGF, Michelle Malkin ran a story on a ‘faked video’.

My question to you is, how callous do these people have to be to assume that the boy is not dead and claim that the video is a forgery? Even if the video was staged after the fact, how could they be sure that the boy was not actually dead?

I never claimed the boy wasn’t dead. I don’t think there’s clear evidence on that either way; but in the original post LGF reader “Last Mohican” argued that there wouldn’t have been any reason to fake the CPR compression in such a delicate way if he were actually dead. That has since been confirmed to me both at LGF and in half a dozen emails from doctors and EMT folks, some going into great detail—and that is far from the only thing wrong with the scene.

If the boy was actually killed, that’s a terrible thing and I certainly don’t enjoy seeing children die.

But if Mahmoud really was a victim of the violence in Gaza, it’s despicable (not to mention highly unethical) to pose and stage a scene with his body like this. Ghoulish. Obscene. The kind of thing terrorists do.

A point that never occurs to the Daily Kos hivemind.

Here’s a thread to discuss the bizarre press conference being given right now by impeached Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich…

At the website of Britain’s supposedly “mainstream” Muslim advocacy group MPACUK, the Gaza conflict brings on a deluge of hate speech and rank antisemitism: Zionist Lies Exposed - MPACUK :: Muslim Discussion Forum.

This one recycles the ravings of infamous self-hating Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism, Benjamin H. Freedman. As a former Jew, Freedman is a real favorite of antisemites and blind haters. The question is, given Britain’s draconian hate speech laws, why isn’t MPACUK in trouble for this kind of stuff? It’s far from the first time.

It’s Friday morning; do you know what your Democratic governor is up to?The Illinois House has voted to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich.