U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-S.C.) warned that the American legacy media is engaging in a potentially deadly practice by peddling false and inflammatory claims by Hamas.
Scott told The Daily Wire in an interview Wednesday morning that he’s concerned that the media’s and politicians’ quick rush to pin blame on Israel by accepting Hamas propaganda could spark a potentially more deadly long-term war waged through misinformation campaigns.
“This actual war of misinformation can actually be deadlier than the actual war that we’re seeing carried out,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “I just can’t imagine why people jump so quickly to conclusions.”
On Tuesday, many American media outlets ran with the narrative created by Hamas that Israel targeted a hospital in the Gaza Strip and took out hundreds of civilians in an airstrike. That claim was debunked within hours after video footage of the explosion showed the area near the hospital catching fire moments after a barrage of rockets was launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, meaning a rocket fired by terrorists likely malfunctioned and landed near the hospital.
The Biden administration later concluded that its intelligence assessment led it to conclude that Israel was not responsible for the explosion at the hospital. Hours after the incident, however, reports from the Palestinian officials in Gaza claiming Israel targeted the hospital made their way to the front pages of America’s largest newspapers.
Scott slammed Democrats in Congress such as Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ilhan Omar (MN), who have doubled down on accepting the Palestinian authorities’ lies and condemning President Biden for standing with Israel. The South Carolina senator then admonished Americans to “verify the facts” before accepting what the legacy media tells them.
“The objective standard is missing and now we get more narrative and more commentary and less facts. Everyone should reinforce the importance of getting facts right the first time.”
Scott added that failure to verify the on-the-ground reality, such as the incident at the Gaza hospital, “might cost many people their lives.” Indeed, the false reporting out of Gaza has already heated the global political arena. Following reports of the hospital being hit by a rocket, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi canceled a meeting with President Joe Biden for later this week.
The false accusations against Israel also led to hundreds of demonstrators gathering outside the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday, setting fire to a building just outside the embassy’s security gate. The demonstrations forced the U.S. to raise its travel advisory for Lebanon to a “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” citing the “unpredictable security situation” in the country.
“Let’s have confidence in our ally to do the right thing, and not set limits or deter them from achieving their goal as quickly as humanly possible,” he said.
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