Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-owned news station that just launched in the United States, apparently was caught airing the death of a Muslim Brotherhood-backed protester in the streets of Egypt — but it was faked.
The network covered what its reporters claimed was a shot man with a bloodied shirt dying in the streets earlier this week. The video footage shows an Arab woman screaming and a man in prostrate position, clutching at a red-splashed stain on his shirt, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
FSA Crimes, a nonprofit that tracks alleged war crimes in Syria, subsequently reported that the incident was faked. On its website, the group described the scene: “Covered in blood, his hand rests on what would seem to be the source of that blood, a gunshot wound. Doctors’ surrounding him as he lays there, eyes shut and face frozen. One of the ’doctors’ then decides to lift the man’s shirt up and to the viewers’ big surprise, there is no wound underneath the shirt.”
The supposed victim then “effortlessly re-positions his legs in way of the camera,” the FSA site states, as The Washington Free Beacon reported. The Al-Jazeera’s cameraman then quickly cuts to a different scene.
Al-Jazeera has been accused on previous occasions of airing reports that are biased and in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood, and FSA says this latest video is just further proof of that bias.
“The strong bias of Al Jazeera in Egypt was always to be expected,” the group wrote. “Their support for the Muslim Brotherhood was a given and there was never any doubt that the new interim government had their suspicions about the news agency.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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