(CHICAGO – May 10, 2024) – Not all media is created equal and media coverage isn’t immune from miscues and outright misses. Looking at the Gaza genocide and Israel’s war on Palestinians, there are major media failures.
Part of the problematic pattern is ignoring Palestinians and devoting major airtime to the Israeli and Jewish point of view, which includes highly personal and moralistic stories about their suffering. It includes extended appearances by Israeli government officials whose claims and talking points go unchallenged. Twisted versions of history that wipe away over 70 years of Israeli oppression, humiliation and killings of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are fed to the public.
Every journalist knows the value of point of view and different perspectives while seeking the truth or, at minimum, balanced news coverage.
In an analysis of the first six weeks of reporting on the Gaza war, The Intercept found New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’ “coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza showed a consistent bias against Palestinians.”
“Major U.S. newspapers disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict; used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis, but not Palestinians; and offered lopsided coverage of antisemitic acts in the U.S., while largely ignoring anti-Muslim racism in the wake of October 7,” it noted. The bias against Palestinians in newspapers mirrored a survey of U.S. cable news that revealed an even greater level of disparity, The Intercept observed.
“For every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned once. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times—or a rate 16 times more per death than that of Palestinians. Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre,’ and ‘horrific’ were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around,” according to the study.
The Intercept also noted: “By and large, young people are being informed of the conflict from TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, and older Americans are getting their news from print media and cable news. … This has led to pro-Israel pundits and politicians blaming pro-Palestinian views on social media ‘misinformation.’ Analysis of both print media and cable news, however, make it clear that, if any cohort of media consumers is getting a slanted picture, it’s those who get their news from established mass media in the U.S.”
Eight months later little has changed on the media front but analysts have found recurrent problems. “With respect to Gaza, the Israeli narrative is usually favored over the Palestinian narrative in the majority of cases. While Israel’s ‘rights’ are always emphasized, those of the Palestinians are hardly mentioned,” wrote emeritus professor Suleman Dangor, a columnist for Muslim Views.
“Whenever biased news anchors in favor of Israel interview Palestinian spokespersons, the first question they ask is ‘do you condemn Hamas?’ but Israeli spokespersons are never asked ‘do you condemn Israel?’ ”
Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights leader and host of MSNBC’s Politics Nation, is a reliable champion for Israel. But he repeated a dangerous lie on MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Show. The talk show host agreed with Scarborough, a conservative, in labeling student protests the same as Donald Trump’s January 6, 2020 insurrection.
A man who built his career on demonstrations and civil disobedience argued that if the student protests were not condemned, Democrats would lose the moral high ground. Sharpton equated anti-Israel demonstrations with pre-planned violence to overthrow an election. That day included assaults on law enforcement as Trumpsters built gallows, called for hanging then Vice President Mike Pence, and had frightened congressmen running and hiding for their lives. Weapons were used to invade the U.S. Capitol. People died as a result of these actions.
That wasn’t a protest; that was the unraveling of a great nation and sedition, an attempt to violently overthrow the U.S. government. Such false equivalencies are dangerous. They squelch criticism of Israel and scare up support for President Biden, who backs the war on Gaza.
Mainstream media demonized students who want deadly destruction to end. Students want universities to cut ties with organizations, groups, businesses, and institutions backing Israel. Yet students have been abused, arrested, beaten, criminalized, and erased. How? Viewers are shown images of scuffles and worse with police. Viewers are told what they are seeing instead of hearing students speak for themselves.
American media has paid little attention to the deaths of colleagues covering Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the current crisis “the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”
As of May 8, CPJ reported, “97 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 92 Palestinian, 2 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese. 16 journalists were reported injured. 4 journalists were reported missing. 25 journalists were reported arrested.”
“Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists have been paying the highest price—their lives—to defend our right to the truth. Each time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a fragment of that truth,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “Journalists are civilians who are protected by international humanitarian law in times of conflict. Those responsible for their deaths face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
Israeli Defense Forces have refused to guarantee journalists will not be targets of strikes.
Even Jews have been silenced or labeled agents of Hamas for championing a Free Palestine.
“As Jewish students, we wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety,” read an open letter from members of Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and independent campus organizations.
School administrations and city officials “have intentionally and consistently escalated” state violence, they wrote. “Their tactics have included arresting and brutalizing students and denying students access to housing, medical care, and religious spaces. The majority of these acts have targeted Arab, Muslim, Black, and brown students.”
Part of the problem remains the majority Whiteness and often Jewishness of producers, editors, reporters, analysts, on-air talent, and off-air bosses. Studies have shown that non-White people, especially Blacks, are regularly misportrayed, stereotyped, and misrepresented. A similar problem exists when it comes to Brown people, Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians.
Biased media coverage isn’t just about perspectives, sources, or language, it is about reporting. U.S. media has failed miserably to recount and highlight atrocities in Gaza—including mass graves discovered after Israeli Defense Forces withdrew. Hundreds of bodies were found at two hospitals. Victims’ hands were tied and some were missing their heads, said the Gaza Ministry of Health.
If this doesn’t demand attention, investigation, and exposure, there is no need for media or a free press.
Naba’a Muhammad, the award-winning Final Call editor, is the host of “Straight Words With Naba’a Richard Muhammad, Bj Murphy, and James G. Muhammad,” which airs live Tuesdays, 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. Central Time on WVON AM 1690 Black Talk Radio Chicago and is live-streamed at the I Heart Radio app and WVON.com. Get more of his writing and content at straightwords.com.
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