Oops? Al Jazeera Airs Footage of Apparently Injured Protester Miraculously Getting Better

As Al Jazeera America launches Tuesday and aims to recruit more cable operators to broadcast the channel, its Qatar-based sister channel, Al Jazeera English, was caught over the weekend broadcasting images of a seemingly unconscious, gravely injured Muslim Brotherhood supporter who it turns out was most likely faking his injuries.

The scene played out in a video that’s now on YouTube and has garnered more than two million views in the three days since it was uploaded.

What is under the bloody shirt? (Image source: Al Jazeera English via YouTube)

Middle East Analyst Raymond Ibrahim who speaks Arabic and follows the Egyptian media closely reports, “A near hysterical woman is heard lambasting the Egyptian military for supposedly killing peaceful Brotherhood protesters, while the Al Jazeera crew videotapes a man who appears to be either unconscious or dead — a supposed victim of the military.”

The scene at the Fateh Mosque in Cairo: A man with a blood-soaked shirt and bandaged head is on the ground. His hand is on his torso resting on the blood stain, suggesting he was shot. When a first aid worker pulls up the “victim’s” shirt, the purportedly unconscious (or dead) man quickly raises his sneakered foot to push away the medic’s hand. All the while, the man’s eyes remain closed.

But the damage was done. Despite the apparent trickery, Al Jazeera viewers got their eyeful of the man’s torso, which had no wound despite the bloody shirt:

(Image source: Al Jazeera English via YouTube)

(Image source: Al Jazeera English via YouTube)

(Image source: Al Jazeera English via YouTube)

It's not clear if the outlet was in on the apparent ruse, but there are those who are insinuating it.

“Of course, the person videotaping instantly stopped — but not before enough of this shameful episode was recorded, proving Al Jazeera’s nonstop pro-Brotherhood propaganda campaign, one naively or intentionally followed by most of the Western media,” writes Raymond Ibrahim in FrontPage Magazine.

Al Jazeera has been criticized as biased by secularist Egyptians who perceive the channel to show a pro-Muslim Brotherhood slant. Several Al Jazeera reporters who resigned in the wake of Morsi’s ouster last month expressed a similar opinion about the “biased coverage” and pro-Brotherhood editorial interference from network management.

The Fateh Mosque in Cairo was described as the “epicenter” of confrontations on Saturday between supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian police who fired at the minaret claiming they were being fired upon by snipers positioned there. Eventually, Egyptian security forces moved out the hundreds of supporters who had camped out there overnight, securing the location.

Earlier this month, Egyptian demonstrators were caught staging a fake protest complete with dramatic poses and injuries for the cameras, as TheBlaze reported.

The technique has long been used by Palestinian activists aiming for sympathetic coverage in the international media and has been nicknamed “Pallywood.” The media manipulation was seen last November, when the BBC showed video of a man lying on the ground, then carried away by neighbors, implying he was injured in an Israeli military attack.

Moments later, he is seen again in the frame, but this time walking, unharmed.

Here is the video of the Egyptian man that's gone viral on YouTube:

(H/T: Raymond Ibrahim)

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