Most student protesters have sought to distance themselves from Hamas. But an activist group has ties to old groups that funded the organization.

On Day 7 of the pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia University campus, Osama Abuirshaid stopped by the student encampment.

The executive director of American Muslims for Palestine walked through the tent city, then made a fiery speech to the gathered crowd.

“This is not only a genocide that is being committed in Gaza,” Abuirshaid said. “This is also a war on us here in America.”

Forty-eight hours later, Abuirshaid appeared at another campus — George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he delivered another speech.

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
    101·
    1 年前

    “Ties” and “links” are favorite weasel words of media manipulation. They’re factual and imply causality without stating it so they’re not technically wrong. Like, “Schools linked to school shootings”.

    • DolphinMath@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      36·
      1 年前

      From the article.

      From 2002 to 2004, Abuirshaid ran the internal newspaper for a pro-Palestinian media organization called Islamic Association for Palestine. The group’s sister fundraising organization, the Holy Land Foundation was designated a terror group in 2001, investigated by the FBI and indicted by the Department of Justice. Ultimately, the foundation’s leaders went to prison for supporting terrorists, and a federal judge later found both groups responsible for funding Hamas.

      Running the newspaper for a group funding Hamas. Sounds like he’s connected to me.

      • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
        81·
        1 年前

        “Connected.” Another weasel word. A genealogy web site that I use can tell me how I’m “connected” to King Charles. (At least 32 degrees of separation, including through many marriages.) What are the specific allegations here?

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
            51·
            1 年前

            And Charles was the Prince of Wales before he took the throne. Is that just an interesting factoid, or are we supposed to infer something from it?

                • DolphinMath@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
                  14·
                  1 年前

                  Definitely can’t write things where the reader might infer things. That would be outrageous and uncouth!

                  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
                    21·
                    1 年前

                    Correct. If journalists know something as a fact, they should state it, and share the source of that fact. If they don’t know something, but have a guess, they can say that it’s their own inference.

                    But to use weasel words to lead the reader to infer things that are not factually supported is, well, not a good look.