US Kills 'Alleged' Drug Dealers, Ignores Alleged Humanitarian Crisis
When the US military strikes in the Eastern Pacific, Fox News quickly champions the killing of 14 'alleged' drug traffickers. The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, (Fox's own title for him, not official) announces these deaths as a matter of fact. Yet, when the US facilitates strikes that kill thousands of confirmed civilians in Gaza, using weapons supplied by the US to a government receiving
billions in US aid—much of which is championed by politicians funded by lobbies like AIPAC—the language shifts. Suddenly, it's 'complex,' 'unfortunate losses,' or a 'humanitarian catastrophe' that the US is merely 'concerned' about, rather than directly complicit in. One might wonder if the 'alleged' status carries equal weight when the dead are brown people in the Global South vs. brown people in
the Middle East. The speed and certainty with which Fox News celebrates these 'kills' sharply contrasts the agonizing ambivalence shown for Gaza, where children are confirmed dead but are still framed as 'collateral damage' in an 'alleged' war on Hamas, not an alleged genocide. It appears 'alleged' operates on a selective basis.