Times of London print edition headline obfuscates Palestinian terror attack

Though the terrorist nature of the attack, and the nationalities of the perpetrator and victims, were never in doubt, Times of London editors chose the following vague and anodyne headline to accompany a Oct. 10th print article by Gregg Carlstrom: "Man shoots two dead in tram attack".

A Palestinian gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon at a crowd near an east Jerusalem light rail stop on Sunday, killing Levana Malichi, a 60 year-old mother of three and grandmother of six, and wounding several others. He then got back into his car, drove a short distance, and had a firefight with police, killing officer Yosef Kirma, 29.  The terrorist, Misbah Abu Sbeih, 39, from Silwan in east Jerusalem, was then killed in an exchange of fire with police.

Sbeih, who was previously convicted of incitement and assaulting a police officer, was reportedly affiliated with Hamas.

Here’s the unproblematic headline accompanying the Oct. 9th online Times of London article on the attack:

orig-times-headline

However, Times of London editors chose the following vague and anodyne headline to accompany a shorter Oct. 10th print version of the same article by Gregg Carlstrom:

times

In contrast, The Telegraph focused on the terror affiliation of the attacker in the headline accompanying their Oct. 10th print article: “Police kill Hamas gunman after fatal shootings”. 

Even the Independent – a news outlet we’ve characterized as the most biased source of news about Israel in the UK – incorporated the word ‘terror’ in the headline of their Oct. 9th article on the attack: “Jerusalem shooting: Three people killed after drive-by shooting branded ‘terrorist attack’ by police”.

See even more egregious examples of vague, biased and misleading Times of London headlines, here, here and here

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