ABC News is making the wrong kind of headlines.
The network caught a storm of flack Tuesday over a post on the social media platform X about the latest expected return of hostages taken by the terrorist group Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.
The ABC post labeled some of the hostages “deceased,” a choice of words that ignited the internet.
BREAKING: Hamas will release the bodies of four deceased hostages on Thursday and six living hostages on Saturday, Hamas and Israel confirmed.
Four more dead hostages will be released next week, according to Israel.
Read more: https://t.co/s1Vr3gGNdz pic.twitter.com/Z4wgs6JuOA
— ABC News (@ABC) February 18, 2025
“BREAKING: Hamas will release the bodies of four deceased hostages on Thursday and six living hostages on Saturday, Hamas and Israel confirmed,” the post said.
“Four more dead hostages will be released next week, according to Israel.”
In a responding post, Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, slammed the deliberately cloudy language.
“Do you mean ‘murdered,’ @ABC?” he wrote.
“Civilian hostages, little children, murdered by the evil, brutal scum of Hamas.”
“Deceased”
“Dead”
Do you mean “murdered,” @ABC?
Civilian hostages, little children, murdered by the evil, brutal scum of Hamas. https://t.co/EQV4fHDnPm
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) February 18, 2025
Lee was far from alone. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the post had been viewed more than 750,000 times and had received more than 1,300 responses. Virtually all of them damned the network’s obfuscation of reality.
Deceased?
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) February 18, 2025
The identities of the dead were not included in ABC’s report, but CNN reported that two of the four were brothers Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were 9 months old and 3 years old when Hamas savages captured them during the single deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Nikki Haley, former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina governor, was enraged with the network.
“Shame on any media outlet that can’t call this what it is, murder,” she wrote.
“Two innocent babies, their mother, and others did not simply ‘die’. They were kidnapped, murdered, and their bodies were held as bargaining chips by terrorists.”
Shame on any media outlet that can’t call this what it is, murder. Two innocent babies, their mother, and others did not simply “die”. They were kidnapped, murdered, and their bodies were held as bargaining chips by terrorists.
Anyone who doubts the brutality of Hamas, anyone… pic.twitter.com/xKHAX1kDJN
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 18, 2025
“You are a disgusting and vile ‘news’ network,” another user wrote.
WARNING: The following post contains language that some may find offensive.
You are a disgusting and vile “news” network. https://t.co/Egi5Hho0Z8
— Hashem (@HashemAllMighty) February 18, 2025
There’s no question this was no accident — and it’s almost certain that ABC’s social media writers and editors anguished over precisely the right term to use to describe a formerly living human being who was taken captive by a bloodthirsty terrorist organization and, as a result, can no longer be counted among the quick.
“Deceased” and “dead” are technically correct terms to describe humans who no longer have a pulse. But context matters when it comes to truth. And context matters a great deal when it comes to the Bibas boys and their mother, Shiri.
(The boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, is a former Hamas hostage who was freed Feb. 1. He had no knowledge that his wife and sons were dead, according to The Times of Israel.)
The Israeli prime minister’s office used the word “slain” to describe the victims whose remains are due to be released, according to CNN. But ABC apparently couldn’t bring itself to say even that.
Hamas claimed Kfir, Ariel and Shiri were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, CNN reported. Even if that’s true — and no Hamas statement can be taken at face value — they were present in Gaza because Hamas had abducted them. Israel was launching airstrikes on Gaza because of the war Hamas started.
That puts their deaths on the heads of Hamas. It also puts Western liberals — the kind who flooded American campuses with pro-Hamas demonstrations last year — on the side of their killers.
And it exposed how a news media organization like ABC, ostensibly devoted to bringing its customers an accurate picture of world events, has allowed itself to become a shill for what can only be described as evil.
Don’t expect to see that word from ABC either.
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