Late last night I bookmarked links to voanews.com so I could post boilerplate about how Voice of America - State's flagship public diplomacy outlet - was using passive voice to describe misfired Hamas rocket attacks but active voice to describe potential Israeli counter-attacks (it's a thing). But I can't do that post now because - after Israel's attack on Hamas - the VOA has taken down the story and replaced it wholesale with propaganda about Israeli-inflicted casualties.

Back-story: among the 100+ rocket barrages that Hamas has launched in the last few days, one landed short and killed two Palestinian schoolgirls. Up until a few hours ago you could read about that via this VOA link, which led to an article entitled "Two Palestinian Girls Killed in Gaza Strip":

Even before it was taken down - more on that in a sec - the story was a model of soft anti-Israel journalism. The lengths to which the writers went to avoid identifying Hamas soldiers as culprits: impressive. Here's a version of the story that was captured by an unaffiliated (?) blog that seems to mirror VOA releases:

Two Palestinian girls have been killed in the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian gunmen continued firing rockets and mortars into Israel despite the threat of a military operation in the territory. Palestinian medical sources said the girls died when an explosive apparently fired Friday by gunmen mistakenly hit a house in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Hamas said it is investigating the cause of the blast, which wounded at least three other people. No group has claimed responsibility.

It's shocking that no group would claim responsibility for anonymous gunmen who apparently fired explosives which led to a situation such that two schoolgirls were killed. Who could it have been? We'll never know since - quite the opposite of following it up - the VOA replaced the original story - URL and all - with this thing:

I can understand changing a headline as a situation develops. But they scrubbed the whole story. The debate over the next few weeks is going to be about the degree to which Hamas aggression made an Israeli invasion imperative - and these tools scrubbed a pitch-perfect crystallization of Hamas recklessness. All down the memory hole. Here's a screencap of a site search on the old lede. The original headline still comes up in the links but behind all four links is the new, properly anti-Israel story. No mention of the Hamas atrocity at all:

You can click on the picture for a more readable screencap. The whole fiasco is a little bold even by the usual standards of US public diplomacy.

References:
* Obligatory Post About WaPo's "Israel Should Lift Its Gaza Blockade" Editorial [MR]
* Palestinians: Israeli Airstrikes Kill More than 170 in Gaza [VOA News]
* Two Palestinian Girls Killed in Gaza Strip [Free VOA]

Previously:
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians"
* State Department Outreach Results In "Multiple Collaborative Efforts" With Islamists (Plus: State To Revolutionize Arab And Muslim Relations By Giving More "Respect")
* US Public Diplomacy - Winning Arab Hearts And Minds By Promising To Sell Out Israel