Last weekend 460 patients and their associates were massacred at Saudi Maternity Hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan. This was acknowledged by the World Health Organization last Wednesday, when they reported that the RSF, the Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese paramilitary force, in other words, terrorists, had committed the heinous act, as well as other slaughters in and around Darfur. One would think that this kind of horror would be widely reported on. When it comes to the nightly newscasts on CBS and ABC, one would be wrong.
Let's start with the CBS Evening News. They did not mention the attack even once all week -- that's zero seconds -- but they did have time for plenty of Halloween stories. On Friday evening, which was Halloween, the broadcast spent one minute on Halloween weather around the country. They ran a two minute package on "spooky" Halloween decorations, and the debate over whether or not they are too scary for children. And the best for last, a three minute segment on toilet paper being used by mischievous trick or treaters using toilet paper to 'decorate' homes and businesses in Heflin, Alabama, something the police are understandably not happy about. Bari Weiss, are you watching?
Over on Friday's ABC's "World News Tonight", they could muster only 19 seconds of coverage of the hospital slaughter and the ongoing killings in Sudan, as anchor David Muir told his audience, "Overseas tonight a horrific scene unfolding in Sudan. Allegations of genocide in Darfur. Mass killings reported over a 72 hour period. Rebels storming a hospital this week, massacring hundreds of patients, visitors and medical staff. Reports of gunmen going door to door. Rebels claim they captured the final holdout of the Sudanese army in Darfur." Then it was on to him promoting a Halloween story, coming up next!
I was very pleased to see that Friday's NBC Nightly News did run a report on Sudan. Peter Alexander, who was filling in for Tom Llamas, warned that some images in the upcoming report may be disturbing, and then introduced Keir Simmons, who was reporting from Egypt. "Tonight, a horror unfolding in Sudan. These are Sudanese militia, accused of mass killings. 460 people murdered in a maternity hospital, the World Health Organization says. Here a man in civilian clothing pleads for his life and, seconds later, he is shot and executed." And there was more, "And in a chilling account obtained by NBC News, an eyewitness describes civilians massacred. Shot in the head and the heart, this man says, they ran over us with their vehicles. I was with my sisters and my female cousins. Two of them were killed right there..."
There was a bit more to the report, all just as horrible. PBS also addressed the massacre on Friday's PBS News Hour, with William Brangham introducing Nick Schifrin's report with much the same warning given on NBC by Alexander. Then, "A fighter shows off his work, he says 'we have burned them.' They show off their horror. They document their own war crimes, with videos too graphic to show." He then goes on to talk about the hospital slaughter and other atrocities committed by the terrorists. The report would go on for nearly 6 minutes, followed by a nearly three minute interview with the Director of the Sudanese American Physicians Association. I know it's an hourlong show, but still, wow!
It's easy to say that if these had been Palestinians who were slaughtered in a hospital, which wasn't being used by terrorists, or even if it was, this would lead the news for days. But when you see what is happening to the innocent people of Sudan, it makes the lack of coverage incomprehensible. It does remind me of another story that the media hardly blinks at, and that is the slaughter of Christians all over Africa, and beyond.
