LONDON: On May 8, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Aljubeir took to Twitter to ask whether or not those who have accused the Kingdom of the so-called Bezos Hack would come forward and acknowledge their mistake, or 鈥渟imply delete their tweets and hope that their positions at the time disappear into the sunset?鈥�

The Bezos Hack refers to an incident in January 2020 when 萝莉视频鈥檚 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was accused, without any proof, of illegally tapping into the phone of Amazon鈥檚 Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos. The crown prince was accused of leaking news of the affair with presenter Lauren Sanchez to US tabloid the National Enquirer because of Bezos鈥檚 ownership of the Washington Post.

For over a year, major Western news outlets 鈥� from the New York Times and Washington Post to Britain鈥檚 Guardian and Daily Telegraph 鈥� have peddled story after story of the alleged leak by 萝莉视频 and each revelation that came afterwards.

And yet, when Bloomberg Businessweek published an excerpt from journalist and author Brad Stone鈥檚 tell-all book on the Amazon chief which revealed the truth behind the leak, the final follow-up story never came.

鈥淭his was a serious accusation and if evidence emerges that it鈥檚 untrue it鈥檚 important that media outlets either report this or correct their previous stories,鈥� William Neal, a London-based strategic communications consultant, told Arab News.

鈥淢ore broadly, too often Western outlets are keen to cast 萝莉视频 in a negative light rather than reporting the facts. Their audience deserves to see the full picture, not partial reporting,鈥� Neal said.

The truth 鈥� which appears to have involved nothing more than Sanchez鈥檚 Hollywood B-list agent brother selling his sister out for $200,000 in what was described as a 鈥減ublic-relations masterstroke鈥� from Bezos 鈥�  was not as useful to the outlets as a falsified Saudi connection was.

The Saudi angle, as Stone notes, was 鈥渙nly a fog of overlapping events, weak ties between disparate figures and more strange coincidences.鈥�

He added: 鈥淔or Bezos and his advisers, though, who were still trying to positively spin the embarrassing events surrounding his divorce, such a cloud of uncertainty was at the very least distracting from the more unsavory and complicated truth.鈥�

A two-week media monitoring period by Arab News since the Bloomberg Businessweek revelation saw few Western outlets publish features on the latest update or correct their previous reporting, which has now been proven to be unsubstantiated.

Outlets including the New York Times and CNN, among others, did not run the story 鈥� a decision which goes against their supposed professional journalism practices and industry norms. Meanwhile, the Bezos-owned Washington Post found itself in its own conflict of interest where it vehemently defended its owner throughout the ordeal, while keeping silent over the latest findings.

鈥淚 would say that it does show bias when media outlets don鈥檛 take the time to correct incorrect claims, and issue corrections when new information comes out. Or sometimes what we'll see is they will issue the correction, but they'll do it quietly. So then, the original incorrect story got a lot more attention.鈥� Julie Mastrine, director of marketing at AllSides, a US media watchdog, told Arab News.

鈥淥ur position is that 鈥榯here is no such thing as unbiased news鈥� and what people really need to do is become aware of that and then learn how to spot bias and read broadly across the political spectrum so that they get multiple perspectives that can kind of challenge them to think critically and consider multiple angles.鈥�

The Bezos-Washington Post conflict of interest has, however, been the subject of coverage by the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. They, as well as the Daily Mail and The Times of London, have published features revealing how Bezos took advantage of his ownership of the Washington Post and of former US President Donald Trump鈥檚 alleged ties to the National Enquirer to cast himself as a 鈥減olitical target.鈥�

The Journal鈥檚 Holman W. Jenkins wrote in a column: 鈥淪eldom will you find a newspaper admitting that it lied to you unless it can push the blame off on a plagiarizing or fabulizing reporter who will be said to have defrauded his or her own editors and institution. Now the Washington Post has an owner who fits this description.鈥�

A Saudi newspaper editor and a member of the Saudi Journalists Association said: 鈥淭his wouldn鈥檛 be the first time that Western media has been accused of foregoing the standards of journalism that it holds others accountable for.鈥�

They added: 鈥淚t is understandable that in our industry, most editors prefer bad news and scandals. Nobody is asking these British and American newspapers for favorable coverage of 萝莉视频, what we as fellow journalists expect of them however is to abide by their own professional standards and retract or apologize for the false stories they published.鈥�

Other examples of bias in Western media came last March when a Houthi-caused fire at a Yemeni migrant detention center killed scores of Ethiopians. Fewer than a handful of Western media outlets covered the incident. Meanwhile, any mistakes committed by 萝莉视频 鈥� ones that the Kingdom has acknowledged and apologized for 鈥�  are immediately scrutinized by the press.

The lack of coverage of the migrant fire even stoked criticism from one of Black Lives Matter Greater New York鈥檚 founding members.

鈥淭his is an issue that needs attention. This is something that can鈥檛 be ignored. This is something I won鈥檛 ignore. There are 44 people murdered and the news isn鈥檛 paying attention,鈥� Hawk Newsome said in an interview on the Arab News-sponsored Ray Hanania radio show.

鈥淚 have strong reason to believe that the news isn鈥檛 paying attention because they鈥檙e black people. It鈥檚 my duty to fight for black people across the world.鈥�

Twitter: @Tarek_AliAhmad