A poster seen in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle after Hamas' strike of Israel in October 2023. featured a Seattle business owner blaming Israel for suffering a terrorist attack by Hamas. The report is rabidly antisemitic, offering such a one-sided take on the terrorist attack that you can reasonably question if it was actually produced by Hamas. Maybe that’s why KING 5’s news director isn’t responding to questions about whether or not the report met their editorial standards.
Hocker frames the report by blaming Israel. He introduces his story by saying Cheney “says she had to do something to help the Palestinians who have suffered under the Israeli government for decades. The Israeli-Hamas war is only making things worse.” This is shockingly biased and historically ignorant. But we can tell where this is going.
“If you don’t know the history of the Israeli government and the occupied Palestinian territories, Taylor wants you to educate yourself,” Hocker declares, setting up the chef as an authority on the issue though not explaining what “Palestinian territories” are being “occupied.” Not until the very end of the report does Hocker reference Hamas, which he calls a “militant group,” was responsible for striking first in a terrorist attack. But he does blame Israel for Hamas existing, noting that it was formed “to push back on Israeli occupation.”How in the world does something so offensive air on KING 5? This is a station in desperate need for Jewish employees and, perhaps, a history lesson.