MEDIAWATCH: Wait – what? Does Sean Plunkett actually believe starving Palestinian kids are crisis actors? Can The Platform survive an Alex Jones level conspiracy?

Does Sean actually believe these starving Palestinian children are 'crisis actors'?

32
494

Now when I first heard that Sean Plunkett had tweeted this…

…I had simply assumed that he was doing his radioactive toxic Uncle routine in his never ending need to stir controversy for clicks and bucks, especially as the Evangelical Wright Family had stopped funding The Platform.

However, David Farrier, who admittedly has had a long beef with Plunkett, has offered up another alternative by insinuating through Plunkett’s reposting of a tweet that absurdly alleges incest over famine…

- Sponsor Promotion -

…and this one claiming it’s fake news…

…amounts to far more than just being a dick, that it’s a real attempt at purposely spreading falsehoods.

Does Sean actually believe these starving Palestinian children are crisis actors?

Isn’t that a tad Alex Jones level conspiracy?

Insinuating that these starving children are crisis actors is a Sandy Hook too far surely even for the remaining sponsors and Wright family investors?

Look, there’s a difference between being a contrarian Edgelord arsehole, (which is what I thought Sean was originally playing at), and insinuating that images of starving children are faked.

Just for the record…

What’s the truth behind two images of starving children in Gaza?

The week began with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling his 3.4 million followers on X that “There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza”.

In response, in a departure from his usual allyship, US President Donald Trump disagreed, telling reporters “there is real starvation in Gaza” and “you can’t fake that”.

On social media, the two positions grew increasingly strident. In support of Netanyahu, countless posts questioned the legitimacy of the images coming out of Gaza of emaciated and desperate people.

“I am watching what the media is showing about the so called starvation in Gaza,” said one a post on X. “I don’t see starvation. The pictures they are showing is not of children living in Gaza. Most people look healthy.”

Many users posted an image of a little girl with desperate, pleading eyes, pushed up against a barricade as a woman behind her held out a bowl for food.

The caption on news sites read that the photo was taken at a community kitchen in Gaza.

But on X, users were disbelieving, claiming the picture was actually much older and had been taken somewhere else.

“This photo is not from Gaza,” wrote one. “It shows a Yazidi girl fleeing from ISIS in Iraq or Syria, taken in 2014.”

That user, and many others, used AI chatboat Grok, which is integrated into Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), and is intended to provide real time answers.

“Is this picture from 2014?” one asked Grok.

“Yes, the photo is from August 2014,” Grok responded, “showing a Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS on Mount Sinjar in Iraq.” Grok said its source was news agency Reuters, “per multiple fact-checks,” concluding, “It’s been misused online.”

New Zealanders have picked up on the claim.

When Stuff published the photo this week, we received complaints echoing Grok’s sentiment.

“Stuff needs to carefully vet all international articles about Gaza before printing,” wrote one reader. “This is a propaganda war … The photos you have used are not photos from on the ground.”

But Shayan Sardarizadeh, a senior journalist at BBC Verify, whose job is to cover disinformation, extremism and conspiracy theories, had a different take on the photo of the little girl.

Since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel responded with a massive military offensive, Sardarizadeh has investigated misleading images coming out of the war zone.

He checked the veracity of the picture.

Grok is once again misleading X users,” he wrote, citing the claim the photograph was taken in Syria or Iraq.

“In reality, this image is from Gaza. It was captured by AP photographer Abdel Kareem Hana at a community kitchen in Gaza on 26 July, which can be easily established by a reverse image search.”

It is indeed easy to do a reverse image search on any of a number of freely available sites. TinEye concludes exactly what Sardarizadeh says: that the image was first published on July 26, 2025 — Grok was wrong.

…now.

It could just be that Sean was wrong and mistaken, as many were, by the misinformation and lies, OR he could actually believe they are crisis actors.

It’s important that he clarifies, because being a dick is one thing, actively doing an Alex Jones is completely another.

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

32 COMMENTS

  1. Again with the poor hostages Sammy!
    So Hamas holds about 50 Israeli hostages.
    Israel has close to ten thousand Palestinians in detention plus those harassed on a daily basis by the apartheid state.
    Your argument is Hamas cannot take innocent Jewish people as hostages.
    Mine is Israel cannot lock up thousands of innocent Palestinian people and not expect them to resist.
    But do not worry about the hostages starving Sammy. They are God’s Chosen people!
    I am sure he will send them some heavenly manna if they need it.
    Incidentally Palestinians are semitic so the label ‘antisemitic’ cannot really be applied to people who support them( not that accuracy ever bothers a shota).

  2. Nah, this is just Sean signalling his allegiance to Juliet Moses’s people’s ritual murder by starvation of Palestinian kids. He ‘believes’ in the sense that he will at least pretend to support their satanic ritual for money.

  3. Amazing isn’t it. Within one short week it goes from there is no starvation in Gaza to there is starvation in Gaza, what changed? Religion changed. Israel has never been concerned about suffering unless it effects them.
    July 29th 1945 is a date seared into my family history, the date my Aunt died during the Hongerwinter never to celebrate her first birthday collateral damage in forced starvation. These are the forgotten victims and so yes I have skin in the game, and yes I will speak out. The deliberate actions of Israel has generational consequences for the Palestinians.

  4. I would hate to live in your head, where do you associate Jews being responsible? First off lets clarify a few things Judaism is not a race, get the basics right unless you are implying they are the master race.
    Here’s a challenge Sammy, Say I condemn the deliberate starvation of Palestinians, I bet the words would choke in your mouth. I have skin in the game because the deliberate starvation is morally and ethically wrong no matter who does it be it the Nazis or ‘The greatest democracy in the middle east” The problem with you is starvation does not exist unless its a Jew which is very telling as it outs you as an Islamophobic who sees the real Semites as having less rights than you. Its about time the world understood Israel is the typical white on brown skinned racism. Nice that you apologize to a white man but delegitimize Palestinians suffering. Care to explain?

  5. For Fixators —

    “It could just be that Sean was wrong and mistaken, as many were, by the misinformation and lies, [AND] he could actually believe they are crisis actors.”

  6. It doesn’t take a five year old to work out that blockading food and water, medical supplies means that people will starve and not get medical care. To deny this is going on is just stupid when the whole world knows for a fact Gaza has been bombed to smithereens and they don’t have any access to food and water or medical supplies unless Israel lets aid through. Which they are not. Sean Plunkett is really corrupt and stupid to promote magical realism as expounded by Israel as they kill, maim, starve and bomb Gaza out of existence and yet say they are not, when the whole world knows what is happening. Yet still they do nothing. The whole situation is beyond belief and the US is to blame for supporting and supplying a monster like Yetenyahoo.

  7. Does it really matter whether or not Plunkett actually believes the vile lies he is spouting? They are still vile lies either way.

Comments are closed.