Friday, May 26, 2006

Unexploded Shell Games from the BBC

The original title is "Gazans killed dismantling shells." Notice that we have three sources for the events of the following incident, each with a different story.
Three Palestinians have been killed in Gaza after attempting to dismantle unexploded Israeli shells found outside their home, relatives say.

One of the shells went off when it was taken into the house, destroying the basement of the house and killing the three teenagers.
Let's see, there's an unexploded shell outside your house, so you take it into your house and bring it down into the basement.
Five other people were wounded in the explosion in Beit Lahiya.

Medics had previously said the deaths were caused when an Israeli artillery shell hit a house.
Palestinian medics?
Israel had denied firing artillery at the time and suggested explosives at the house may have gone off prematurely.
That seems the most likely possibility to me for an explosion that originated in a basement. The headline and presentation of the story don't suggest this at all. If the BBC reporter went through some sort of verification procedure or reasoning process to decide that the relatives' version is most likely, he should have included that in the article. Would the author of this even admit that he has privileged the relatives' version?

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