On October 27, Fox News interviewed NCAVF Founder David Notowitz about disinformation during the Israel-Gaza War and his expertise in video forensics.
Reporter Brian Flood spoke with Notowitz about the Gaza hospital bombing story, where Hamas claimed that Israel hit a hospital and killed hundreds of people. Major news outlets ran headlines confirming the story – but then it turned out to be false. In actuality, a rocket from Gaza hit the hospital’s parking lot and killed far fewer people than they initially reported.
“Hamas is not a reliable news source, ever,” Notowitz told Fox. “Now, you should be skeptical of anything they give you. It might be real, but you should be skeptical. Skeptical of any videos, any stills, any news they give you. It could be accurate, but check your sources and check other sources other than them.”
Notowitz, who reviews audio, video, and pictures for clients and determines whether or not they are accurate, noted that the New York Times made a “really bad mistake,” saying it took six days to correct the false headline.
He said, “I think the first thing to think about when you’re looking at videos, stills, images, documents, anything coming in, any news form, is do you trust the source? Is this source proven to be someone that you can generally trust over the long term? And I think that’s going to be the bottom line now.”
From the alleged hospital attack to other types of propaganda, Notowitz noted how important it is to hunt for the original source of the audio, video, or picture and analyze it to see if it’s actually real.
“There are subtitles that are changed, and you can have images easily edited on Photoshop. And, you know, even actors are used. I’ve seen, you know, Gaza has videos in the past where they’ve acted out scenes, recorded them and sent them to the press and people swallow them as accurate. So, I think it comes down to trying to find the original form of that evidence, who has it, who recorded it.”
Helping Clients with Audio and Video Forensics
David Notowitz and his team at NCAVF are well-known experts who have appeared on Fox News, CBS News, and Law.com. If you need an expert opinion or help with your case, please contact us today for more information.