Editor's note: Since the outbreak of this round of the Hamas-Israel conflict, fake news has become a new war front. Many untraceable, un-confirmable "news" stories are blinding people from seeing the truth on the ground. Whom do we trust in this conflict? More importantly, whom can we trust? Current affairs commentator Einar Tangen and non-resident senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization Mario Cavolo separate truth and fake news for us in this conflict. The views expressed in the video are his own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Edited excerpt:

CGTN: One of the most heard stories in the Palestine-Israel conflict is that Hamas cut off the heads of the babies. It first came from an Israeli paper, then soon enough it caught the attention of global media. However, CNN recently reported that this claim has not been confirmed. A U.S. administration official said that neither the U.S. President Joe Biden nor his aides had seen pictures or received confirmed reports of the beheading. The official further said that Biden was referring to public comments from media outlets and Israeli officials when he talked about this claim.

So my question is, why are we seeing Western media jumping at a piece of unconfirmed information and broadcasting it all over the world?

Einar Tangen: Quite frankly, because the President of the United States, as well as media groups, repeated it. I mean this was some rumor that started on social media. There was a reporter, an Israeli reporter, who said they're cutting off the heads of babies. When she was asked about it, she said, I heard it from a soldier. She couldn't seem to figure out who that particular soldier was.

This is the height of irresponsibility. Joe Biden can say, well I was just reacting to things. That's what Donald Trump used to say: Somebody said; I heard; People say. This is highly irresponsible. And it goes to the great lengths of how people are jumping on this issue without knowing the facts, as opposed to trying to sort out what is actually happening and addressing the ongoing tragedy that we are now facing.

Mario Cavolo: All of this speaks to a much bigger problem, a long-term problem in terms of what's happened in Western mainstream media, it's at the behest of, for example the United States government, that is the intentional weaponization of misinformation as propaganda to continue to propagandize the citizens.

The United States only wants to talk about some other egregious, exaggerated news to deflect and distract all of us from what's really going on. This is not a new tactic. Nevertheless, it puts us all in a situation where we need to raise our awareness and understand that this weaponization of misinformation is propaganda is a very serious problem coming from the highest institutions, government and mainstream media.

CGTN: Is there an ideology here that they are trying to push?

Einar Tangen: Yes, there's this idea that somehow Israel is right [and] Hamas is wrong. This despite the number of killings of press people, including American CNN reporter who was shot, literally executed, by a sniper in Israel. There’s tremendous amount of a concern about this. So, the press reported on it.

But for some reason, some reporter says they're killing babies, and all of a sudden this becomes fact. And it's reported. The damage this is done cannot be undone because people are going to remember. You ask people in two weeks what Hamas is capable of? And they say, well, they kill babies. It cannot be unsaid. So, therefore, there is a responsibility to make sure that you are factually correct.

Mario Cavolo: The underlying ideology here is U.S. imperial supremacy. So, when we see Israel egregiously violating the rights of the Palestinian people, it's America's responsibility to step up and say, we can't do that to this group of human beings, any group of human beings. Unfortunately, the United States has abandoned and shunned that responsibility. And it's quite shocking to which we see the government and the mainstream media instead involved in propaganda again to continue to distract and mislead us as to what's really going on.

CGTN: My final question is, what's in it for them? If we are saying that Western media are biased, what do they hope to gain by it? What's their interest in this?

Einar Tangen: In this mad rush to report sensational situations and issues, they start taking shortcuts. They start saying well, enough people said it. I don't have to get independent, reliable, informed, verification. I can just put it out there. You have the story which was documented. They were hot, rolling. They show this reporter crouching down pretending that she's at the front. She isn't at the front. She's six miles away, which is confirmed by the people on the tape itself. It says we gotta to make it look like you're at the front. So，when you hear those bombs going off, just kind of crouch down; it makes it more interesting.

I thought acting and journalism were supposed to be separate, but apparently not so anymore.

This is the worst thing you can do in a democracy. And it is the worst thing you can do in any government. It is irresponsible press reporting and it needs to be stopped. Question is, will it?

Mario Cavolo: One of the other things to keep in mind is that in the United States, these news broadcasters that we see, with all of these people on CNN and Fox news, they're not on regular salaries of it, 80 to 100,000 dollars a year, 50,000 dollars a year. These people are paid millions of dollars per year for their position as the most prominent newscasters in Western media. They're not interested in losing their jobs, their agenda and their interests. And what they get out of this is that they get to be part of the elite. They get to be part of the 1 percent of the United States and the rest of the world of elite, rich and oligarchs and Wall Street, corporate executives. So, they're all in their club. And at that level, frankly, they lose, obviously, their moral compass.

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