EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: I wrote this about reporting from the Middle East back in 2018, and in trying damndest to be fair to CNN, I revisit it here because once you step out of the “us vs. them” bubble, the reality is (and I can say this as a former combat correspondent) getting “clean” coverage out of hotspots is harder that most folks realize, and it is still invariably true.

“To be sure, as an aggrieved people the Palestinians have been abused en masse by many entities and governments, most particularly by especially their own Palestinian Authority. As in all conflicts, there are legitimate issues that ought to be raised. But as the old saying goes, “truth is the first casualty of war” and intelligent (not to mention peaceful) dialogue and resolution seems impossible. This is so because first, the manufactured and romanticized image of the Palestinians as “brave freedom fighters” does not wholly stand up to scrutiny. Second, the attention-grabbing images overpower an undeniable political fact: as New York Post columnist Frank Fleming wrote: “I think you’re always going to have tension in the Middle East when there’s people who want to kill the Jews and Jews who don’t want to be killed and neither side is willing to compromise.”

Does that excuse the constant anti-American gullibility of CNN in the current situation?

Of course not.