When news of a potential terrorist attack breaks, the first draft can sound like an attempt to maintain political correctness.The New York Times came under attack on Wednesday for tweeting, "A plane flying from Dubai to Israel was diverted after an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot, Israeli officials said."After people mocked the "altercation" lingo, the Times PR team counter-attacked: "Our headlines and live coverage contain all the facts we're able to confirm as we confirm them.
Unlike activists and partisans, we don't publish speculation or unverified information."Anyone who thinks The Times doesn’t give off partisan activist vibes isn’t reading it.NEW YORK TIMES ISSUES CORRECTION, DELETES LINE QUESTIONING IF ISRAELIS WERE VICTIMS OF OCT 7 TERROR ATTACKThe British Broadcasting Corporation posted a similarly bland breaking-news headline: "Israel-bound flight diverted after fight between pilots." This sounded a little like a verbal spat.At least the brief report underneath relayed, "Two Israeli officials said the co-pilot is believed to have stabbed the captain and tried to crash the plane."Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who allegedly was attacked on a FlyDubai plane heading to Israel on Wednesday, Sept.
30, 2026.(Israel Foreign Ministry)The American broadcast networks didn’t perform this way on Wednesday morning.
On "Today," NBC reporter Matt Bradley was more straightforward: "There was some sort of violent incident on board that flight.The plane sent out a hijacking alert." A passenger on the plane correctly relayed the pilot had been stabbed.FLYDUBAI PILOT SHOWED WORLD 'THE HIGHEST FORM OF COURAGE,' INDIA'S PM SAYSABC’s Ian Pannell used the T-word: "This is a rapidly developing story, but it is looking increasingly like a terrorist incident."But the usual instinct for elitist media is to move very slowly to guess about the motive – even if it might seem obvious.
An attempted hijacking of a plane full of Israelis headed for Tel Av...