Palestinian who attempted to murder Israeli on train influenced by CNN

Two weeks ago, a Palestinian Arab attempted to murder a female Israeli soldier traveling on the Jerusalem light rail by stabbing her within inches of her heart.  We covered it... Reuters didn't.

We now know more about the suspect's motivations:

According to the charge sheet, Shuman was motivated to murder after he "watched news reports on Al Jazeera, Al Manar, Al Quds, Al Aqsa and CNN over the last three years, and felt great frustration from the situation of the Palestinians and the security checks at Kalandia crossing." He "felt that he had to 'do a deed' and stab the soldier so as to cause her death."

Exposure to reports produced by Reuters is not mentioned in the charge sheet, but given the enormous size of Reuters' syndication network, it doesn't take a great leap of faith to imagine that Shuman, as well as millions of other Arabs like him, have at one time or another come across examples of Reuters anti-Israel agitprop.  Indeed, CNN publishes Reuters material.

We suggested in our posts following the murder of a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren in France last week, that exposure to agitprop is likely to influence audiences to take action consistent with Reuters propaganda campaign and institutional ideology.

By his own admission, this is what occurred with Shuman resulting from his viewing of stories on the Middle East conflict broadcast by CNN and other media outlets over the last three years.

Raising an interesting legal question on the possible role and liability of media companies in the deaths of Israelis and others at the hands of those who are incited to kill by false and misleading news reports.