Masked Israeli settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, kicking her roughly 50 times and clubbing her as she covered the West Bank olive harvest Friday — and the same press corps that shrugs at deplatforming of independent and conservative journalists at home now demands global outrage for one of its own abroad.

The attack on Levine, 64, was brutal and caught on video. She was wearing a protective vest marked "PRESS" when dozens of masked men charged from a hilltop near the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. "I was attacked, pushed to the ground," Levine said from her hospital bed. "Luckily I had my flak jacket and my helmet. Otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times." Video posted by independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel shows settlers beating Levine with clubs, pulling her up off the ground to beat her again, and stealing her equipment. "They took everything," Levine said afterward. When asked if she was okay, she replied: "No, I'm going to die."

The assault deserves condemnation. The selective outrage does not. When Big Tech silences independent journalists stateside — when the press corps cheers or averts its eyes as dissenting voices are destroyed — there are no executive editor statements, no embassy monitoring, no international campaigns. The protected class protects its own.

Nathaniel, who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers arrived after the settlers had assaulted the villagers — and then opened fire on Palestinians, shooting a man in the leg and firing tear gas. "They do nothing to stop the settlers, and they speed into town and start firing their guns and tear-gassing," Nathaniel said. The Daily Caller reported that soldiers pointed guns at paramedics treating the wounded man and shoved journalists, including Nathaniel himself.

Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray called the attack "unwarranted" and urged "a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities." Israeli police said they opened an investigation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a full investigation but questioned the journalists' account, stating that "serious questions remain" about what happened — a detail KABC-TV reported but NPR and Al Jazeera omitted.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued a boilerplate response: "We are aware of the reports and monitoring the situation." It added that it "condemn[s] criminal violence by any party in the West Bank."

NPR and Al Jazeera both framed the attack as part of an escalating pattern of settler violence. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported 24 settler attacks on olive harvesters Friday, leaving 20 people injured. Al Jazeera called the incident a "pogrom." The Committee to Protect Journalists' Sara Qudah said the beating was "part of a disturbing pattern of violence and harassment against journalists regardless of their nationalities," noting that attackers face no consequences because Israeli authorities have failed to stop them. Earlier this month, Agence France-Presse photojournalist Jaafar Ashtiyeh was beaten covering similar settler violence.

The Daily Caller was alone in highlighting the IDF's conduct — soldiers tear-gassing Palestinians and shooting a man in the leg while settlers operated freely — a detail the establishment outlets soft-pedaled.

An American journalist was nearly killed doing her job overseas. That is a story. The industry that only finds its voice when the victim carries a legacy press badge — that is the story beneath the story.