When news broke yesterday that Israel had bombed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, killing patients, children, and staff, every “anti-Zionist,” “critic of Israel,” and most big American journalism outfits ran with the horrible story. The tale incited worldwide condemnation and recrimination. But it wasn’t true. Israel did not hit the hospital. The Islamic Jihad did. Hundreds of people did not die. The missile landed in a parking lot. It was Hamas disinformation.

The media’s disastrous failure on the Gaza hospital bombing story is one of the most vivid and instructive examples of the structural and inherent problems plaguing contemporary journalism. It mirrors many other fiascos of the past decade.

It is clear at this point that journalism schools are producing closed-minded, credulous ideologues who will believe anything that comports with their worldview. It’s either that, or we have a bunch of closed-minded ideologues who are willing accomplices in spreading propaganda. Functionally speaking, it doesn’t really matter. //

Of course, any person who’s spent more than ten minutes on the Israeli-Palestinian situation — to say nothing of those who are paid to cover the conflict — knows full well that both Hamas and the PLO are constantly lying about alleged Israeli atrocities and casualties. Anyone who has even a rudimentary understanding of this situation knows that 30-40 percent of rockets that emanate from Gaza land in Gaza. And they know that Hamas not only operates among civilians to use them as human shields — often in hospitals — but that it is keen on seeing Arab civilian deaths to gin up sympathy and sacrifice martyrs.

If you’re gullible enough to believe Hamas’s “Health Ministry,” you need to be reassigned to a job that better aligns with your skill set. Something far away from reporting. Maybe become a journalism professor. //

Many of these same people are the would-be censors who lament the nefarious misinformation that festers and spreads on social media. There have always been conspiratorial people and rumors and disinformation. The real problem today is that we can no longer trust establishment media to debunk rumors and offer facts.

Actually, considering their reach and role, establishment media are often the biggest disseminators of disinformation.