According to an Associated Press headline on April 9, Israel is being blamed for a pre-dawn strike on a Syrian military base. The large photo that the wire service opted to use alongside that headline, though, is of young Syrian victims of an earlier chemical attack presumed to be carried out by the Syrian regime.
As a result of A.P.’s egregiously misleading photo choice, the casual reader is likely to incorrectly assume that these children are the victims of the airstrike blamed on Israel.
CAMERA has contacted A.P. journalists to urge the wire service to replace the misleading photograph and to notify A.P. on Twitter.
On the A.P. website, a hidden caption explaining that the photo is of victims of an “alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma” during a Syrian offensive (and not of the subsequent strike on the Syrian military base near the city of Homs) is not visible to readers unless they click on a small button at the bottom of the photo.
Separately, the United Kingdom-based Sky News used a similar photo of a child victim of the Douma gas attack below a headline that reads, “Israel Accused of Deadly Syria Airfield Bombing.” Again, the “airfield bombing” was on a Syrian military base, not on Douma.
A Jerusalem Post reporter was among the first on Twitter to protest the misleading juxtaposition by Sky News.
CAMERA’s U.K. Media Watch, which also contacted Sky News, noted that the picture has since been replaced.
