A woman who allegedly stabbed two Jewish men with a syringe in Manhattan's Diamond District was arraigned Sunday on hate crime charges — and the speed with which the national press amplified the story reveals exactly which victims the media thinks matter.
Anna Mochalova followed a man wearing Hasidic clothing on West 47th Street on Oct. 21, prosecutors say. The victim felt a stabbing sensation and later realized he was bleeding. Five minutes later, Mochalova attacked a second man, stabbing him with a needle and threatening: "Go away from here. I have a gun. I'm going to kill you," according to court documents reported by HotAir. The attacks are antisemitic. They deserve coverage. But coverage isn't the question — which coverage gets skipped is.
While the syringe attack makes national headlines, a Virginia Beach murder barely traveled past the local paper. Angela Britt, 41, was convicted last week of shooting Deshawn Ginyard seven times and stealing his gun after a three-day jury trial, according to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. Ginyard had just returned from visiting his son in New York and his twin brother in New Jersey. Two hours after Britt arrived at his home, doorbell footage showed her walking past alone — wearing a mix of her clothing and Ginyard's. A bloodstain on her shirt matched his DNA. A jail body scanner found what staff believed were cartridge casings inside her lower body, though they were never recovered. Britt represented herself at trial. She admitted taking his gun but denied killing him. The Virginian-Pilot covered it. Nobody else did.
Then there's Halima Salman, the Brooklyn-born ISIS bride who was convicted Tuesday of training with a female ISIS battalion in Syria. The New York Post gave it the full tabloid treatment — "ISIS teen bride faces decade in prison." Salman, now 27, testified her ISIS-supporter father forced her into marriage at 18 and moved the family into terrorist-controlled territory in 2016. Jurors saw footage of her wielding an AK-47 and selfies with the ISIS flag. Her defense attorney called the case "a grave miscarriage of justice" and tried to rebrand Salman as a former Brooklyn Girl Scout with a passion for sewing. She faces up to 10 years. It's the first trial of a woman in the US for joining ISIS. But the Post framed it as spectacle while glossing over the repatriation program that brought Salman and nine family members back through JFK Airport in 2024 — a program that cost American taxpayers and delivered zero accountability until years later.
Here's what connects these stories: the press decides which victims deserve the country's attention. An antisemitic syringe attack in the Diamond District? National news, instantly. A man gunned down seven times in his own bedroom in Virginia? Local news, if that. An ISIS bride who made it back through JFK? Tabloid fare. HotAir led with the hate crime framing — correctly. The Virginian-Pilot reported Britt's conviction straight, but no national outlet cared. The Post sexed up the ISIS story with "teen bride" headlines while the feds' repatriation program went unexamined.
Every victim matters. The press doesn't cover them that way — and that's the real story the media won't tell.
