Covering the unspeakably brutal attack on israel by hamas and now the wider war, among the best and bravest in the business. Theyve seen and devastation for decades, and yet some of them have choked up at having to report the absolutely gruesome details of the atrocities carried out by the hamas terrorists. My fox news colleague trey yingst. Reporter you see scenes of parents showing up to sorry. Its difficult. Yeah. Reporter parents showing up to give hair of their kids to the authorities to see if they can match the dna to the bodies. Just horrific. Howard anderson cooper, after a woman described the kidnapping of family members. Im sorry im so emotional. Howard cnns Nick Robertson on talking to an Israeli Military official. Reporter and i asked him how are you going to get these hostages back. All right. Nick robertson, thank you. Reporter and what he told me was go ahead, nick. Reporter im sorry, abby. And how he k he toll me that they were going to do everything in their power to get them back. Howard by putting themselves in harms way, many have had to take cover. Nwcs Richard Engel nbcs Richard Engel. Reporter i can tell you right now, theres been a lot of incoming fair here. Howard with the death toll in israel over 3900, hamas is claiming over 2300 killed by retaliatory airstrikes, but the Israeli Military at least tries to avoid casualties. What has been so heartbreaking for journalists to report, more than 200 young people slaughtererred at a Music Festival, many women waned, families with children taken raped, families with children taken hostage. Babies decapitated. A bloody crisis like this reminds us not just that journalism can be risky, but that letters are human beings reporters are human beings who grapple with their emotions in dealing with unimaginable terror. Im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. Howard from President Biden to pundits across the spectrum, most but not all are backing israel. More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered. Not just killed, slaughtered, in israel. Among them, at least 14 american citizens. Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. We must be crystal clear, we stand with israel. Israel is fighting back against what is a savage enemy that wants to wipe them off the planet. They want israel to occupy gaza, get enmeshed in a, you know, door to door, house to house fighting there, kill a to hot of Palestinian Civilians and immediately erode the moral high ground that it has right now. These are animals committing atrocities against civilians. Theyre raping women, Kidnapping Children And Butchering Corpses and parading them around like a savage ritual. If you cant take the right side on this war after hearing these repugnant tactics, theres something wrong with you. Howard on the view, sharp iser criticism of israel fighting back. And when you look at that law, part ofs it is retaliation against innocent civilians collectively is also terror and is also a war crime. Howard joining us now to analyze the cover coverage, ben domenech, and in los angeles, leslie marshall. Both are fox news contributors. Ben, almost every story the media cover there are, theres a divide. One side says this, the other side says that. The consensus in the American Press right now seems to be after these unthinkable hamas atrocities that there are not two sides. Yeah, i dont think that most of the media is taking that side, so i think that some of the voices that are taking that position stand out all the more. You obviously played the clip from sunny hostin on the view, there have been a couple other Media Members on msnbc and elsewhere who have taken an opposite stand, certainly on social media you see some of this. But i do think its almost impossible to advance that argument in the face of the facts as we know them on the ground. And, look, gaza is an incredibly, an incredibly condensed population. You do not have the luxury of, you know, as weve seen in many other conflicts of really having the possibility of bombing them in any real sense, responding to them as israel has every right to without the threat of the deaths of innocents. But thats something that, frankly, hamas was counting on. Howard yes. Its something they understood about this dynamic, and we have to understand that this is something that they welcomed because they do not care about their people. They only sought the death of jews. Howard leslie, whatever mistakes the Israeli Government has made, isnt that dwarfed by a massacre at a Music Festival and the killing of children and babiesesome. Look babies . Look, i have a jewish parent, im married to a muslim, i lived in israel, and i also have been to the palestinian territory, so i dont come at this from sound bites or headlines or pictures or videos online, ive seen it with my own eyes. Certainly, i havent been there during this. What happened is absolutely horrific. It is a massacre. It is mass murder. And here is my worry, howie, and i dont want to be, like, leslie was right, but my worry was9 that the tide would start to change, and i think hamas counted on it. Some people would say hamas set a trap for israel and theyre perhaps stepping into it with what they plan to do in gaza. Gaza is, almost 52, 53 of their 2. 3 million population are under 18 years of age, so more than half of the Gauze San Population are children. And, you know what in i read something on twitter, and it made me cry, and it said i will stand alongside the casket of an israeli child the same as i stand along the casket of a palestinian child. And i think thats what it is. When it comes to the children, the children are not part of the 44 that elected hamas into government in gaza. Howard right. Which is a dictatorship, by the way. The problem is right. Thats what were seeing, absolutely. And thats what were seeing, i think, in the change in the tone of coverage and also in the response and also in the increase free palestinian and propalestinian, not prohamas rallies. Howard the American Press was notoriously silent during the holocaust, now i think thats not the case. Do you think we are moving on to deal with what is a humanitarian crisis in gaza with the blockade and not having enough food and a Million People ordered to move from the north to the south and some of them dont have any shelter . Look, i understand that the media this is something that i think was very predictable, and leslie was right to predict it just in the sense that it was something i was saying a week ago as well. Youre going to see the media inevitably move away from this proisrael position and start to say, oh, well, theyve gone too far, oh, well, you know, this is too much. But i think what we have to understand is that israel, if israel stops defending itself, if it allows these types of, a massacre of this type to happen without the repercussions of going in and taking out the leaders of hamas and the participants in this in a very direct and violent way, then they will be exterminated. They will be exterminated by the people who want to see them exterminated. And thats why israel has to keep fighting, and thats the perspective i think the media has a duty to offer. This is one side in this situation that brought this upon themselves with their inhuman action against innocents and that the innocent casualties of war that inevitably follows is something that they began. It was not israel that took the first step. Howard right. And israel, you know, its enemies like hamas, like hezbollah believe it has no right to exist, wants to wipe the country off the map. Leslie, its certainly fair to create says President Biden who i thought gave a very moving and forceful speech. We played a little bit at the top, for his dealings with iran which funds and trains groups like hamas. And now after a saying, oh, that 6 billion that was part of the iranian assets for the prisoner swap, it was irrelevant, now theyve caved to pressure and freezed it again. Should the media make that a main focus . No, i dont think finish. You know, just like i didnt think covid should be political, this shouldnt be political. I know people say how can you not this shouldnt be political. I think this is humanitarian. Honestly, nobody should be prohamas, nobody should also be when the u. N. Says we have people in hospitals and we cant mauve them in 24 hours, please, we are begging you, including our own workers, nobody should be pro that east. We as a world either. We as a world need to get together. Its not just iran, howie. When this first started, jordan and egypt were very proisrael, and after israel made that stance and said what they were going to do and gave the gazans in the north 24 hours to get to the south and people were, like, where will they go, especially with the denseness of the population, youve seen a change in that tone. From jordan, from egypt. So certainly, you know, people want to criticize President Biden, hes not alone with the rest of the world. What theyre trying to do is prevent iran from attacking and being able to have Nuclear Weapons quicker to attack israel. But i dont think this is the time to be playing, you know, politics. I think this is the time for the world to get together to stop what could be not only middle east war but, god forbid, a world war. Howard right. Donald trump has taken a lot of flak for some comments he made, flak from the media, from democrats and from some of his republican president ial opponents for saying this. Lets roll it. Ill never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing. Hezbollahs very smart. They were all very smart. Howard ben, its the timing of trumps remarks, and hes referring to a Military Operation that he says israel bailed on, israelis deny this. But what do you make of the former president s comments here . His inability to move away from if making anything personal even in the most dire of circumstances, are we supposed to be surprised at this point many. [laughter] of course this is what a he cares about the most. I think hes actually spent the days following trying to walk that back howard yeah. Saying israel has no greater friend exactly, exactly. I have to respond to what leslie just said about the iran deal because i dont think thats turning this into in any way, i dont want to take away are from what joe biden said about israel, because i thought that was one of the strongest things he said in a long time. At the same time, the Special Envoy that he appointed, okay, the original author of this iran deal, rob malley, is currently Urn Suspension for violating so many different Security Protocols and being suspected of actually being an iranian spy or perhaps enabling their own agents to take advantage of that deal, a deal that came back on, it became live again as soon as joe biden was elected. So from my perspective, that pratt question about is the coddling separate question about is the cods coddling of iran under the obama and Biden Administerings is that a fair question . I think the answer is absolutely yes with. Howard leslie, a brief response from you. I think its a fair question, but, yup, what i cant stand and i see it you know, what i cant stand is whether its from the right who cant get their act together in the house, for crying out loud, to tan are this fengerpointing and blaming President Biden for this when the only blame with, and we love to blame, dont we . Americans love to blame, more than anybody else, you knowing, the only blame here is hamas. Lets go back to blame. Donald trump was blamed, rightly so, by both sides for talking about smart, intelligent terrorist organization, hezbollah. And, you know, i think, i agree with ben on that 100 just quickly you know, did a 180 when he said the house cant get its act to together because of 208 democrats and their decision to join with the hateful 8 howard well talk but one of them wasnt Marjorie Taylor greene. [laughter] howard well talk about that later. Marjorie Taylor Greene did blame joe biden for what is happening in the middle east. Howard all right. Can i call a halt to this . [laughter] i did want to mention im glad President Biden did an interview with 60 minutes. He seems to be getting that people need to see a President Leading in times of crisis. Also a reuters reporter was killed and ap has sidelined a gaza reporter who tweeted things like israelis elect nazis. When we come back, why some in the media are refusing to call hamas a terrorist organization. Its easy to get lost in investment research. Introducing j. P. Morgan personal advisors. Hey david. Connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. Lets find the right investments for your goals okay, great. J. P. Morgan wealth management. [ applause ] the day you get your clearchoice dental implants makes every day a confident day. A neverhidemysmile day. A lifeoftheparty day. A takeontheworld day. A believeinmyself day. A flashmynewteeth day. Because your clearchoice day is the day you get your confidence back for good. A clearchoice day changes every day. Schedule a free consultation. Howard some leftwingers for reason of ideology or ethnicity have no sympathy for is reel, are quick to blame the jewish statement for any mid violence including msnbc. What were seeing today are very deadly consequences of failed policies, failure on the american administrations part to change ours, to take a different course cans of action with how it deals with the palestinians and the israeli, failure on israels part. Msnbc has made 441 references to hamas militants or or the fighters. They are terrorists. Full stop. And msnbcs pathetic refusal to call them that is just shameful pandering to their farleft audience. Howard ben, so disappointing for some at msnbc, but why are liberals generally so afraid of using the word terrorist to describe clearly horrible acts of terror . I think, howie, theres a connection here that we need to understand which is the reason that you see support from the socialists, from the b with lm backers, from a lot of the same people in these leftist organizations is because these are all the different trees, different branches of the tree e of the Decolony SizerDecolonizer Movement as a whole, whatever you want to describe it as, which has become a cause celebre on the far left. I think youre seeing a conflict which is to some degree a generation aal conflict between the left establishment which typically is more akin to manager proisrael or at least fine with israel with a younger and quite loud, Vibrant Leftist Movement within not just the media landscape, but the Political Landscape as a well which views this as part of that overall effort and is completely alignedded with palestine, the same people you see appearing at rallies, putting up their palestine flag in response to support from israel that you see from most of american politics. Howard leslie, the New York Times insisted on calling hamas militants. And there was a story the that said they were terrorists, okay, theyve finally seen the light, but the story was changed later in the day to gunmen. Washington post, bbc also avoiding use of the word terrorist. How do you see it . I see it as were focusing on the wrong issue. It really doesnt matter what we call them, and i call them terrorists and im a liberal democrat. I think the reason for this, howie, is twofold. One, the United Nations does not list hamas as a terrorist organization; rather, they do call them a militant operation. And and also because they are an elected political body, you know, by 44 of those that could vote, of the less than half that are over 18. And like you said, it was not, you know, it wasnt a majority by, you know [laughter] if you win by majority, if so, they would have lost. Howard yeah. So i think thats part, you know, part of the reason. I dont think its Pandering Being on the left, sorry, ben, but being on the left it doesnt make me feel good or bad what they call them. We all see whats happened in the same pictures, and if i may add a quickly one other thing, i really want us to be careful about lumping people that are saying theyre prohamas to people who are profree palestine. Howard yeah, i understand that. I understand that. But it is important, but it is important people that feel that they have its important that we call it out for what it is. I mean, i think right. But [inaudible conversations] i dont think any of these people are taking Marching Orders from the United Nations. And, frankly, the United Nations which is, essentially, an antiisrael body in the way that it behaves and certainly is in no position to lecture us given the kind of elevation that they have given to authoritarian and despotic regimes around the world who use the u. N. To recycle and basically try to apply, get some kind of shamefulness and moral equivalency to the rest of the world and the free world and the west. I simply do not accept the idea that it doesnt matter what we call them. Howard all right. Call them militants and youre wearing, you are weighing in in favor of palestine in this moment, i think its a tell about what youre willing to do and how much you are willing to grapple with the extreme and hateful acts that went on as we saw this past week. Howard i dont want to be unfair to ordinary palestinians living in poverty in gaza is, but ill tell you this, if gunman had killed 200 people at a Music Festival in nashville