Words have meaning. 

The words that leaders and media use can change the course of events. 

We saw that with the media's poor reporting about the Gaza hospital explosion, as they helped promote Hamas propaganda, which led to rioting at U.S. and Israeli embassies. But the media didn't seem to care about the accuracy or how that might impact world events. 

Now we have anti-Israel/pro-Hamas people ripping down the flyers of the people kidnapped by the terrorists from Israel. The flyers are being put up to help focus attention that those people are still being held, and some of them are Americans. How media and politicians respond to those kidnappings can have a big impact on getting the kidnapped people back and dealing with the rabid propaganda on the subject. 

But the words The Washington Post used to describe a mother and the two of her children being kidnapped are being ripped apart on social media - and rightly so. 

Interesting choice of words from Washington Post. “detained” 🤔 pic.twitter.com/kiuKHPjIwo

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) October 20, 2023

According to the WaPo, Hadas Kalderon's children were just "detained" by Hamas, as if their bus was late and they couldn't get back in time. How could they possibly diminish the evil of kidnapping children in this way? And they wonder why Americans no longer trust them when they write things like this. This is the kind of denial that helps those pulling down flyers, wanting to deny what has happened here. 

This is a choice. This is an editorial choice by Washington Post.

You wanted proof @farhip, this is it. https://t.co/dNhWQEJdca

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 20, 2023

Stephen Miller flagged the WaPo's Paul Farhi on the disgusting nature of this, calling it an "editorial choice." 

He then asked them to provide an answer as to why they did such a thing, and not just via a stealth edit. 

Why is your employer referring to Jewish children kidnapped by Hamas as being "detained"

You guys better provide a real good fucking answer for that one and not a stealth caption edit.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 20, 2023

So what happened next? You might have guessed. Here came the stealth edit. 

Update - Stealth caption change. So would you like to explain why this happened? @farhip https://t.co/AkOj612f0i pic.twitter.com/NtO2uQL4jj

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 20, 2023

.@farhip @ErikWemple
You guys should probably explain why the first caption was allowed to be published, who wrote it, which editor approved it.

Then you guys should explain why it was changed, which editor approved the change and why.

Democracy dies in darkness. pic.twitter.com/yn1i4ZBjZz

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 20, 2023

Chances that we get any real answer from these characters? Not much. I think they'd probably just hope to avoid it until the news cycle changes. 

But it's not accidental when they seem to live in a state of denial, as we've seen before from the WaPo's Philip Bump. Who can forget him saying he doesn't know what Hunter Biden means when he says he gave half his income to his father and trying to spin the Chinese wire that listed Joe Biden's address as a beneficiary?

This is The Washington Post. Democracy dies in denial. It's a feature, not a bug.