gaza hospital bombing
A view of the surroundings of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after an explosion in Gaza City on October 18.
  • Israel was blamed for bombing a hospital in Gaza. The media treated its denial with skepticism.
  • But it turned out it was not an Israeli airstrike as many assumed.
  • The incident serves as a reminder that, in war, all sides engage in propaganda.

If a tree falls in a forest, and no reporter is there to witness it, the first task for the seeker of truth is to establish: Did the tree even fall down at all?

On Tuesday, most international news outlets — and, by extension, most news consumers — were reasonably convinced that a hospital in Gaza had just been destroyed in an explosion, killing many of its patients.