Why do I bother reading this crap?

With all of the verifiable, newsworthy things going on the world today (including the hundreds of rockets that have been fired at Israeli civilian population centers by Hamas in just the past 24 hours), the front page of today's online New York Times featured the following article, top, front and center:

 

 Pay special attention to the passage from the article that I've highlighted below:

This is a 17 year old (i.e. old enough to actually be a Hamas or Islamic Jihad combatant), who is the son of a Hamas government official, making completely uncorroborated claims of Israeli misdeeds.

And the reason the Times felt that this story was not only newsworthy, but important enough to place in the top-center spot of their home page is that if his asserions could be corroborated, this would constitute an Israeli Military violation of both International and Israeli law.

Forget the fact that EVERY SINGLE ROCKET FIRED FROM WITHIN CIVILIAN AREAS OF GAZA AT ISRAELI CIVILIANS IS A DOUBLE WAR CRIME!  And the source and destination of those rocket launches can actually be verified!!!

The Times could just as easily have reported that if the IDF had stolen one of the kid's kidneys and sold it on the black market (or used it to bake matzoh for Passover!), it would have also been a violation of  International and Israeli law.  Because without corroboration, or some compelling reason to believe it could be true, this is nothing more than a blood libel dressed up as a news lead... an irrelevant fairy tale, not news!

Unless, of course, you are the New York Times: the self-proclaimed arbiter of what news is fit to print.