Probably most readers here long before now have seen the video below (Piers Morgan interviewing Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef on the current Israeli response in Gaza to the Hasbut I love it so much I want to display it here, too.
I confess to being a little taken aback by Ben Shapiro’s justification of the mass bombing of civilians (Dresden, Tokyo, Nagasaki …) by the Allies. I had long thought (after talking with some from that generation, including one who belonged to a bomber crew over Dresden) that “we” looked back on that kind of vengeful barbarism with some guilt and shame. Certainly not some kind of “tragic necessity”. Still naive after all these years.
As for Piers Morgan insisting in the above show that he had never spoken of “decapitated babies”, the following demonstrate that his memory failed him at that moment:
and
But let’s end on a most positive note — Piers Morgan’s interview with Noam Chomsky:
Neil Godfrey
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Piers Morgan (whom I seldom agree with) in this case accurately disputed Bassem Youssef’s claim that he had talked about “40 decapitated babies”.
Instead, in the video clip one hears Piers Morgan reporting that “40 babies were killed… some of them decapitated.”
This accurately reflects original reporting by Nicole Zedeck on i24 News that “One of the commanders [at Kfar Aza] here said at least 40 babies were killed — some of them, their heads cut off.” The identity of the commander is unknown. (See https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/10/12/40-israeli-babies-beheaded-by-hamas/ for a detailed discussion of the degree to which the reporting has been independently confirmed.)
In what amounted to the “broken telephone” game, Zedeck’s reporting on “40 babies, some of them decapitated” at Kfar Aza was transformed on the internet and various media outlets (but not Piers Morgan) to “40 decapitated babies”.
Quite correct. Bassem Youssef was conflating sources and misattributing the phrase to Piers Morgan. The point would have been better made if the phrase was dropped and the focus was on the power of the image (of even one). Numbers irrelevant.