The New York Times walks back flawed Gaza hospital coverage, but other media outlets remain silent

[lapucelle]

61. There's lots of nonsense coming out of reddit and twitter. There's a transcript of the NPR report.

People should read it.

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Here's some information about Earshot.

Earshot is the worlds’ first not-for-profit organisation producing audio investigations for human rights and environmental advocacy.

Using cutting-edge audio forensic analysis techniques, we add a crucial but often overlooked dimension to open-source investigations. While image and spatial analysis have become widespread over the last few years, until now half of the story has remained untold on the soundtrack.

At Earshot, we draw on more than a decade of experience of audio analysis, bringing justice to crimes that lie beyond the cameras' frame.

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The NPR reporter:

So let's start with the Hamas claim of an airstrike. Pretty much everyone agrees - all the experts I've spoken to so far - that the visual evidence doesn't support a standard airstrike. There's no big crater. There's not a lot of shrapnel or structural damage to the hospital, and there's no pieces of shrapnel found at the site. That would be pretty unusual.

But, you know, the Israeli claim that it was a failed rocket - there's a problem there, too.

Israel says rockets came from the West, and independent video supports that. But the video closest to the blast - you can hear the sound of something whizzing by. That's called a Doppler shift. It's that rise and fall and pitch of something passing you like a car that goes vroom. An NGO called Earshot analyzed that sound.

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Here's what Earshot's spokesman actually told NPR:

We're saying that [the sound analysis] reduces the probability that this is coming from the West. It's rocket science, after all, so we can't completely rule it out.

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/23/1208061552/what-new-analysis-shows-about-the-gaza-hospital-explosion

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Here's what CNN's report says about the same video:

A leading US acoustic expert, who did not have permission to speak publicly from their university, analyzed the sound waveform from the video and concluded that, while there were changes in the sound frequency, indicating that the object was in motion, there was no directional information that could be gleaned from it.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/21/middleeast/cnn-investigates-forensic-analysis-gaza-hospital-blast/index.html

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So to recap, there is no Doppler effect evidence that "proves" anything.

One spokesman for a private audio analysis company said the sound "reduces the probability" that the rocket came from the West.

A leading acoustics expert worked on CNN's investigation and concluded that "no directional evidence can be gleaned from from the recording".

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And from this, reddit sleuths who fancy themselves to be acoustics experts are making misinformed, ridiculous claims.