The Washington Post admits that headline about Israeli strikes paired with photo of Majdal Shams mourners “lacked context.”
By World Israel News Staff
The Washington Post newspaper ran a clarification regarding a headline and illustrative photo it recently paired in the daily, after the misleading juxtaposition omitted Hezbollah’s responsibility for the Majdal Shams massacre.
On Monday, the Post’s lead story in its print edition featured a photo of Druze families mourning children who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack, with the headline of the article directly underneath it reading “Israel hits targets in Lebanon.”
Notably, the caption to the photo also failed to state that Hezbollah was behind the deadly attack, stating only that the killing was caused by a “strike” on the Golan Heights.
Considering that the headline only mentioned Israeli strikes – without discussing the massive rocket barrages by Hezbollah – a reader may have thought that the photo was illustrating a funeral for those killed by Israel.
The pairing sparked intense backlash from pro-Israel and Jewish groups in the U.S., blasting it an example of media bias against the Jewish State.
“Even with a photo from the funeral of an Israeli child killed by Hezbollah, @washingtonpost chose to frame Israel as the aggressor in the headline. Shameful journalism,” wrote the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. on its official X account.
“This isn’t journalism. It’s a dangerous distortion of reality,” tweeted the American Jewish Committee.
In an editor’s note in the paper on Tuesday, the outlet acknowledged that a “headline and subheadline that accompanied a July 29 Page One photo and article about Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon did not provide adequate context.”
“The headlines should have noted that the Israeli strikes were a response to a rocket strike from Lebanon that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The photo depicted mourning for one of those victims, as the caption noted,” the note read.