Sayong you are on the other side without saying you are on the other side.

From Israel-Gaza Conflict by The New York Times.  

This is one of those structures where the NYT has multiple 1-2 paragraph updates being posted by several journalists related to a major and fast breaking news story.

Twice, I see an odd mismatch between the event being reported and the language being used by the New York Times reporters.

The first instance is right there in the headline.  This is not a report on the Israel-Gaze Conflict.  This is a report on the invasion of Israel by Gaza-based Hamas militia forces.  There is no equivalence or balance as seemingly implied by the NYT headline.  The Israel-Gaza Conflict has been going on for sixteen years.  And there are two sides of that story regardless of one's interpretation of each of those sides.  The story of the Israel-Gaza conflict is the see-sawing of interests and actions by the respective parties over those sixteen years.

But what happened this morning was a multi-point coordinated invasion of Israel by land and sea, accompanied by a massive rocket bombardment.  The attackers were the Gaza-based Hamas and the target of the assault were Israeli Defense Forces bases and civilians in numerous towns.  An invasion, not a conflict.  An invasion by one side, not both.

Language decisions like this are in one sense inconsequential.  But they can also be revealing.  

Especially when there is a pattern. 

Among the updates, there is one by Peter Baker linking the invasion to domestic American politics.  Kind of unseemly in itself so early in the event where much remains unknown.  But look at the subtle language error.  

Peter Baker

Oct. 7, 2023, 10:46 a.m. ET17 minutes ago

17 minutes ago

Peter Baker

Former President Donald J. Trump wasted little time trying to blame President Biden for the attack on Israel. “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration,” he said in a statement. He did not explain what he meant but other Republicans have pointed to the administration’s hostage deal with Iran that released $6 billion in Iranian funds but did not involve US tax dollars.

Former President Donald J. Trump did not try to blame President Biden.  He explicitly did blame Biden.  Agree with his argument and evidence or not, he directly blamed Biden.  There was no basis for writing "trying to blame."  The reporter is sotto voce interjecting his opinion that the accusation is without merit.  He is editorializing on the sly rather than reporting.  

This sly editorializing through language choice happens all the time in the mainstream media but it is striking to see two such obvious examples in the same piece.