Amid campus protests, organizers with past ties to Hamas support also emerge

On Day 7 of the pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia University campus, Osama Abuirshaid stopped by the student encampment.

The executive director of American Muslims for Palestine walked through the tent city, then made a fiery speech to the gathered crowd.

“This is not only a genocide that is being committed in Gaza,” Abuirshaid said. “This is also a war on us here in America.”

Forty-eight hours later, Abuirshaid appeared at another campus — George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he delivered another speech.

SwingingTheLamp,

“Ties” and “links” are favorite weasel words of media manipulation. They’re factual and imply causality without stating it so they’re not technically wrong. Like, “Schools linked to school shootings”.

DolphinMath,

From the article.

From 2002 to 2004, Abuirshaid ran the internal newspaper for a pro-Palestinian media organization called Islamic Association for Palestine. The group’s sister fundraising organization, the Holy Land Foundation was designated a terror group in 2001, investigated by the FBI and indicted by the Department of Justice. Ultimately, the foundation’s leaders went to prison for supporting terrorists, and a federal judge later found both groups responsible for funding Hamas.

Running the newspaper for a group funding Hamas. Sounds like he’s connected to me.

SwingingTheLamp,

“Connected.” Another weasel word. A genealogy web site that I use can tell me how I’m “connected” to King Charles. (At least 32 degrees of separation, including through many marriages.) What are the specific allegations here?

DolphinMath,

Ran the internal newspaper for a group who funded Hamas.

SwingingTheLamp,

And Charles was the Prince of Wales before he took the throne. Is that just an interesting factoid, or are we supposed to infer something from it?

PRUSSIA_x86,

That is indeed the kind of thing one could make inferences from.

SwingingTheLamp,

Exactly. Those are weasel words, designed to lead the reader to infer things, warranted or not.

DolphinMath,

Definitely can’t write things where the reader might infer things. That would be outrageous and uncouth!

SwingingTheLamp,

Correct. If journalists know something as a fact, they should state it, and share the source of that fact. If they don’t know something, but have a guess, they can say that it’s their own inference.

But to use weasel words to lead the reader to infer things that are not factually supported is, well, not a good look.

DolphinMath, (edited )

If the reader is inferring things, that is a good thing.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/infer

  1. To introduce (something) as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence.

That said, if the article itself is inferring things, one could argue that is a use of weasel words by the publication. However, this is not the case when they give specifics, explaining their qualified statement(s). A qualified statement in and of itself is not “weasel words.”

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/infer

  1. To lead to (something) as a consequence; to imply.
FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

These sort of attempts to discredit the movement won’t work while Israel is conducting a fucking genocide.

Carrolade, (edited )

There’s unfortunately more to it than that. It is on peaceful protestors to make sure they’re not supporting violent organizations. Just because I say something, and someone else says the same thing I say, does not make that person automatically my friend and ally.

Everyone who fights against some evil is not automatically a good person. It’s just not that simple in real life. Evil fights other evil all the time, look at gang wars and cartel violence.

There’s more to this than a simple smear campaign, and if we just try to brush it away as one, we are only hurting our own cause.

edit: We don’t want to be the equivalent of a “good cop” that covers for other corrupt cops, just because they’re “on the same side”. It’s hard, but we have to be better than that.

DolphinMath,

Agreed.

I’m reminded of Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” quote, in response to the Charlottesville protests where Proud Boys chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

DolphinMath,

USA Today – Bias and Credibility

Bias Rating: Left-Center

Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual

Country: USA

MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: Mostly Free

Media Type: Newspaper

Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic

MBFC Credibility Rating: High Credibility

About MediaBiasFactCheck.com

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Stamau123,

Lol, downvoting the media report

Tryptaminev,

Because it is factually wrong and run by a pro Israel propagandist

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