Not fit to print (part three)

For our latest installment on news from the Middle East that was not fit to print by the New York Times, we have this little tussle reported in the Daily Telegraph:

"Hamas, the radical Palestinian group, won a crucial test of strength with the Palestinian Authority yesterday when it secured the release of a gunman arrested for allegedly firing rockets at Israel.

"Hundreds of Hamas loyalists demonstrated on the streets of Gaza City, setting up roadblocks and threatening to kill supporters of Mahmoud Abbas, the new leader."

Egyptian diplomats were forced to intervene, reported the Telegraph, "spelling out to the Abbas administration the dire consequences of not releasing the gunman, Jamal Aawad. Within hours he was free."

Times editors didn't run this report as it would conflict with their downplaying their policy of not making Abbas look bad if at all possible.

Imagine if Israeli mobs forced the release of a Jewish millitant leader. The only question at the Times would be, "should this be above or below the fold on page one?"