A FlyDubai flight headed toward Tel Aviv, Israel, nearly crashed on Wednesday after its Omani co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain while shouting “Allahu achbar” and took control of the plane carrying roughly 180 passengers, largely Israeli.
uncertain
pilot → head → passengers
If not for the heroism of those on board, an untold number of lives could have been lost in the attempted hijacking.
uncertain
number → lose → hijacking
It’s a pretty straightforward story, yet the media butchered it.
asserted
media → ’ → it
The Washington Post described the incident as a “midair altercation” that “prompted a hijacking distress signal.”
asserted
that → describe → signal
Fox News called it a “fight in cockpit.”
asserted
News → call → cockpit
The New York Times characterized it as a “clash between pilots.”
asserted
Times → characterize → pilots
United Press International’s headline was: “Physical altercation in cockpit forces FlyDubai flight to divert.”
asserted
altercation → force → flight
The BBC posted on X, “Israel-bound flight diverted after fight between pilots.”
asserted
flight → post → pilots
The list goes on and on.
asserted
list → go → ?
Here’s a sentence I’ve never uttered before: CNN actually covered this more honestly than the vast majority of the legacy media.
asserted
CNN → ’ → media
After initially referring to the attack as a “violent incident,” when more information came out, the outlet repeatedly — and more accurately — framed it as a “suspected attempted hijacking.”
asserted
outlet → refer → hijacking
The same cannot be said for several other major outlets, including and especially the New York Times, which framed the notion that the attack was terrorism-motivated as “far-right.”
asserted
attack → say → right
This is the same outlet whose headline for a 2015 story about an Israeli being murdered by a group of Palestinians who dropped large rocks on his car from an overpass was, “Jewish Man Dies as Rocks Pelt His Car in West Bank.”
asserted
Rocks → murder → Bank
That’s like a headline after the Boston Marathon bombing reading: “Spectators Die as Pressure Cookers Explode Near Finish Line.”
asserted
Cookers → ’ → Line
After being rightfully called out for its shameful coverage, the New York Times issued a response on X: “Our headlines and live coverage contain all the facts we’re able to confirm as we confirm them.
asserted
we → call → them
Unlike activists and partisans, we don’t publish speculation or unverified information.”
uncertain
we → publish → speculation
Their defense has two fatal flaws: First, Israel had been saying it was an attempted hijacking for many hours by the time the outlet changed its framing from “clash” to “stabbing.”
asserted
outlet → have → stabbing
Second, and most egregiously, the outlet has repeatedly published speculation or unverified information — particularly when it disadvantages Israel.
uncertain
it → publish → Israel
They ran a bogus piece earlier this year accusing the Jewish state of training dogs to rape Palestinians and never issued a retraction, and 10 days after the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, the outlet ran a story falsely claiming Israel killed 500 people in a Gaza hospital bombing.
asserted
Israel → run → bombing
For the latter story, they cited the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry.
asserted
they → cite → Ministry
It’s quite telling that they’d take Hamas’s word as gospel, but wouldn’t even call Wednesday’s incident a “suspected” hijacking attempt.
asserted
they → ’ → incident
And the New York Times says it’s not like “activists and partisans” — give me a break!
asserted
it → say → break
The New York Post also deserves props for calling Wednesday’s incident a “suspected terror attack” and asking the important questions, such as: How did an Omani — a man from a country that has no diplomatic relations with Israel — end up as a co-pilot on the Flydubai flight?
asserted
that → deserve → flight
The airline’s agreement with Israel stipulates that only pilots holding passports from countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel can land in the country.
asserted
that → stipulate → country
If successful, the attack could have been at the very least the second most deadly act of terrorism against Israel in history, only behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, which saw over 1,000 murdered.
uncertain
1,000 → see → massacre
The 180 souls on board dwarf the number of people killed in the 1978 bus hijacking dubbed the “Coastal Road massacre,” in which 38 lives were lost.
asserted
lives → dwarf → which
And if the Omani co-pilot happened to crash into a population-dense target, hundreds, if not thousands, of people may have been killed.
uncertain
hundreds → happen → people
One might imagine that the media, the supposed bastion of objectivity that they are, would present the matter with the level of alarm and urgency it deserves.
uncertain
it → imagine → alarm
Instead, because the victims are Israeli and the attacker is Middle Eastern, it’s downplayed.
asserted
it → downplay → ?
For those paying attention to the legacy coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, this should come as no surprise.
asserted
this → pay → surprise
Unsubstantiated claims of Israeli wrongdoing are met with “Israel accused of war crimes” headlines, but when Arabs launch an attack, the “terrorist” label is often softened with “militant.”
uncertain
label → meet → militant
The questions the media should be asking right now are: Was the Omani co-pilot an Iranian sleeper cell?
asserted
pilot → ask → ?
We know Iran has targets mapped out in America — are the sleeper cells already here, too?
asserted
cells → know → America
Let’s not wait for the next “midair altercation” to find out.
asserted
’s → wait → altercation
The Aporia
