For all the truly deceptive and harmful propaganda that spews forth from government mouthpieces, it really boggles my mind that this is the one that “media watchdogs” decide to pounce on.
Atrocity propaganda of this sort is also very deceptive and harmful, used to gin up war fever and depict a chosen opponent as inhuman and beyond the pale.
British press reports at the outbreak of the Great War had German soldiers throwing babies in the air and catching them on bayonets. The Western press widely reported Iraqi soldiers pulling babies from Kuwaiti incubators, and that was used to justify the Gulf war. There is nothing new in the world of propaganda.
One of my favorite talking points in this propaganda tussle has been:
"Dead babies without heads != beheaded alive babies. Could've been done postmortem"
as if it could make a difference.
I believe that the issue is a "rush to print" desire by media publications, made possible for better or for worse, by the internet. There seems to be a decrease in the ability to research and accurately report a story in favor of being first to press. Has the internet caused this?