The media coverage in general has been atrocious of this issue. In this case, however, the original headline seemed pretty reasonable. Why?
1. Israel had struck the hospital 3 days earlier [1];
2. Israel ordered an evacuation of these hospitals becamse of impending military action [2];
3. The only direct video evidence showed a large explosion that was inconsistent with a misfire or any explosive capability by any group in Gaza. This occurred at night. At day, it was shown that was no large crater consistent with a high-yield explosion (eg as delivered by JDAM) and the explosion occurred in a car park, not the hospital itself. There are now several theories but an Israeli airstrike hasn't been ruled out; and
4. Israel and the IDF lie all the time. In this war we've had videos posted by official Israeli and IDF channels only to be deleted. Same with statements. We saw the same thing with the assassination by Israeli snipers of Palestinian journalist and American citizen Shireen Abu-Akleh [3]. Israel initially attempted to blame this on stray fire from militants but these lies were quickly debunked.
Traditional media bends over backwards here. I mean look at headlines like "Reuters journalist killed in Lebanon in missile fire from direction of Israel" [4].
We saw this in the Hamas attack too with unsubstantiated stories about "beheaded babies" [5], a story that the President repeated, claiming to see evidence of this but then having to walk it back [6].
I don't know the answer to this but here's my question: does Nate Silver have this same level of skepticism for anything Israel or the IDF says? I hope so.
And if the article had been presented like your post, I think we'd all think that's great!
State the known facts, then describe the information provided by extremely biased and known-dishonest interested parties, with the context of their personal biases.
But front-loading it with reverse-passive voice gives credulence to parties who did not deserve it. IDF officials are extremely dishonest, but Palestinian government ones are not better.
The NYT headline was "Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinian Officials Say." which puts the dubious source after the claims. That could've been phrased "Explosion Kills Hundreds in Gaza Hospital, Palestinian Officials blame Israeli Strike". Slightly longer but would put the facts separate from the claims.
Meanwhile, the Politico headline (which came out slightly later after the Israeli statement had been released):
"Blast kills hundreds at Gaza hospital; Hamas and Israel trade blame"
1. Israel had struck the hospital 3 days earlier [1];
2. Israel ordered an evacuation of these hospitals becamse of impending military action [2];
3. The only direct video evidence showed a large explosion that was inconsistent with a misfire or any explosive capability by any group in Gaza. This occurred at night. At day, it was shown that was no large crater consistent with a high-yield explosion (eg as delivered by JDAM) and the explosion occurred in a car park, not the hospital itself. There are now several theories but an Israeli airstrike hasn't been ruled out; and
4. Israel and the IDF lie all the time. In this war we've had videos posted by official Israeli and IDF channels only to be deleted. Same with statements. We saw the same thing with the assassination by Israeli snipers of Palestinian journalist and American citizen Shireen Abu-Akleh [3]. Israel initially attempted to blame this on stray fire from militants but these lies were quickly debunked.
Traditional media bends over backwards here. I mean look at headlines like "Reuters journalist killed in Lebanon in missile fire from direction of Israel" [4].
We saw this in the Hamas attack too with unsubstantiated stories about "beheaded babies" [5], a story that the President repeated, claiming to see evidence of this but then having to walk it back [6].
I don't know the answer to this but here's my question: does Nate Silver have this same level of skepticism for anything Israel or the IDF says? I hope so.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahli_Arab_Hospital#Rocket_s...
[2]: https://www.who.int/news/item/14-10-2023-evacuation-orders-b...
[3]: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/22/lies-investigat...
[4]: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/reuters-videograph...
[5]: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/israel-hamas-behea...
[6]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/white-house-walks-...