Washington Post Draws Heat Over Front Page Seeming To Portray Child Killed In Israel by Hezbollah as Victim of Israeli Airstrike
The Washington Post on Monday received a fierce backlash over its choice of headline and accompanying photo covering the latest round of violence between Hezbollah and Israel.
The Post’s Monday cover ran stories on the left and right columns about JD Vance and elections in Venezuela, respectively, with a center headline that read, “Israel Hits Targets In Lebanon.” The Israeli strikes deep into Lebanon came after a rocket attack killed twelve children on a soccer field in a Druze village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel has blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which has come after months of Hezbollah rocket attacks throughout the north of the country.
The Post then ran its coverage of the retaliatory strike under an image of one of the Druze children’s funerals.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) slammed the Post on Monday, writing, “The front-page image of today’s Washington Post is that of a child murdered by Hezbollah. Yet the front-page headline—’Israel Hits Targets In Lebanon’—portrays Israel, not Hezbollah, as the aggressor.”
The official X account for the state of Israel added, “Hezbollah murdered 12 children from northern Israel (the photo on the front page is from one child’s funeral) but look at the headline.” The account went on to call the cover a “new low” for the paper.
The Post did not immediately respond to Mediaite’s request for comment.
Below are some additional reactions to the Post’s cover:
The front-page image of today’s Washington Post is that of a child murdered by Hezbollah.
Yet the front-page headline—“Israel Hits Targets In Lebanon”—portrays Israel, not Hezbollah, as the aggressor. pic.twitter.com/qPoFzfP827
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) July 29, 2024
Hezbollah murdered 12 children from northern Israel (the photo on the front page is from one child’s funeral) but look at the headline.
A new low from the @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/ncqrgVI2kI
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) July 29, 2024
I’m disgusted with the @washingtonpost false front page. The picture is from a funeral of 12 Israeli children murdered by Hezbollah but the headline implies otherwise. The Post has become a full blown anti-Israel newspaper. No apology can ever change this disgrace. Shame on you! pic.twitter.com/tX5WGbDYJe
— Elad Strohmayer 🎗️ (@EladStr) July 29, 2024
The Washington Post has been consistently doing stuff like this since October. It’s why I stopped linking to them in November.
They’ve lost half their audience and are bleeding money. It’s an obvious sinking ship. And it’s one that deserves to sink at this point. https://t.co/nfZeoeP0G0
— AG (@AGHamilton29) July 29, 2024
This is bad even by the Washington Post’s usually incredibly low bar https://t.co/gtMG5X2rje
— Lahav Harkov 🎗️ (@LahavHarkov) July 29, 2024
Your too-often reminder that it’s obvious @washingtonpost & owner @JeffBezos have made a business decision on how to (not) cover attacks on Israel & Jews across the world. https://t.co/KGk4ups7Vn
— Charlie Harper (@CharlieBHarper) July 29, 2024
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