Deplorable lies, especially those inspired by geopolitics, white supremacy, right-wing nationalism, often lead to catastrophic events-invasions, bombings, tortures, abuses of all kinds. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine shoot up like lava from an erupting volcano in this respect. This begs the question: why not expose the lies before they lead to such catastrophes? One of the answers is that mainstream media, the purported bulwark against usings lies as the pretext for crimes against humanity and genocide, has abandoned its obligations and has become complicit in these types of crimes. This scandalous practice is playing out in many places, including India where it is deeply entrenched. Nowhere, however, is this outrageous pattern more evident than in Israel’s genocidal war against the people of Palestine.
Israel is trumpeted by politicians and the media as the only democracy in the Middle East, as the sole nation in West Asia that shares Western moral ideals, and as the most loyal friend of the West in that part of the world. This is an exculpatory assertion that is intended to make Israel appear innocent and to situate it among enlightened nations-those that believe in rule of law, practice democracy, eschew non-discriminatory practices, and guarantee freedom of expression.
Obscuring the Crimes of Israel
The truth is that Israel is violently repressing Palestinians and is committing genocide against them. Mainstream media, however, deliberately obscures these horrific crimes against the Palestinian people. For example, according to The Intercept, journalists for The New York Times are advised not to use words such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupied territory, slaughter, massacre and carnage in their coverage of “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.”
This immoral directive clearly shows that Israel has a stranglehold over mainstream media, making the latter capitulatory and weak in terms of fulfilling its obligation to tell the truth about what Israel is committing in Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, the media rarely reports on the pogroms, tortures, rapes and other barbaric acts that Israel is unrestrainedly dishing out against the Palestinians. Or if it does report on these tragedies, the narrative is overwhelmingly skewed to defend Israel’s utterly cruel actions.
No Context, No History
Intent on creating a distorted perspective for people to give credence to Israel’s claims, mainstream media cites October 07,2023, as the watershed moment for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The media blatantly ignores the fact that October 7,2023, has its genesis in Israel’s seventy-five years of brutal occupation. It is as if context does not matter, and History is irrelevant. Citing a report published by the Center for Media Monitoring (CfMM), Zahera Harb, in an opinion piece for Al-Jazeera on the misrepresentation by many British media outlets, said: “The context of decades-long Israeli oppression and occupation of Palestinian territory was absent from most of the coverage. The coverage was framed in a way that implied that the conflict started on October 7.”
Both elements– no context and no history- “present a perspective and implication that provide an entirely different frame of reference as to the reality” of October 7, 2023.Killing of innocents, which took place that day, is by no stretch of the imagination defendable. For the media, however, forming a perspective and evaluating the genocide that commenced the day after can only be done through the prism of October 7,2023.
As if ignoring history and dismissing context weren’t enough to satiate Israel’s lust for Arab blood, the media descended even lower into the cesspool of lies and distortions. It circulated fabricated stories coming out of Tel Aviv of decapitated Israeli babies and rapes of Israeli women. The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Daily Express and The New York Times were the main conduits for spreading these lies.
The Media is Beholden to Israel
In The Needle Has Shifted on Israel’s Claim That Hamas Used Mass Rape as Strategy, Pamela Philipose writes, “Among Israel’s most dependable allies in its propaganda war, which has been running alongside its genocide action in Gaza, have been Western media outlets which have systematically and faithfully amplified information and opinion emanating from Tel Aviv.” Beholden to Israel, the media hastened to propagate these fabricated stories, giving Israel all the excuses it needed for carrying its premediated crimes.
Again, Pamela notes, “The mass beheading of Israeli babies by Hamas came to be perceived as a carefully manufactured piece of information circulated to draw similarities between the Palestinian group and ISIS. More importantly, it was to justify Israel’s vicious, genocidal assault on Gaza launched almost immediately.”
Israel’s most ardent supporters, however, would still like the world to believe that Israel’s actions, which they don’t consider amount to genocide, are fully justified. Their mouthpiece for this unconscionable and dastardly position is, of course, the media. And the media does this by covering up crimes, even crimes against their fellow journalists who dare to report the truth, through the tale of lies it spins and by retreating into deafening silence when the option of telling lies is not viable.
Regarding this, The Middle East Eye writes, “Western journalists, many of whom profit and make their career from covering our stories with thinly disguised opportunism and international racism, not only deny us the right to narrate, but they have also been nauseatingly silent over the industrial mass killing of their Palestinian counterparts.” Israel has murdered over 165 journalists, and mainstream media has remained silent. As Middle East Eye again points out, “The complicit silence of international journalists suggests that they view their Palestinian counterparts as sub-human-as lesser beings, not worthy of life.”
What is the Role of the Media, if not Objective Truth?
The media has a definable purpose, which is to report events objectively and truthfully, giving contexts and backdrops to events. Unfortunately, distortions and lies greatly define mainstream media’s coverage of Israel’s crimes against humanity, of its ethnic cleansing of Gazans, and of its genocide against the Palestinians.
Citing the CfMM report again, Zahera Harb writes: “The report’s findings imply that numerous journalists and commentators in Britain knowingly and unknowingly aided a propaganda campaign aimed at providing false legitimacy for Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza- an assault that, accordingly to the International Court of Justice, could plausibly amount to genocide.” This represents a colossal and reprehensible failure to adhere to the ethos of good journalism.
When the media engages in such propaganda, “the images that are seared into our minds” can make the perpetrator appear as the victim and the victim as the perpetrator. The notion is to make the Palestinians legitimate targets for ethnic cleansing and genocide. That was the reason why- to desensitize the world to what Israel would soon unleash – the Palestinians were characterized as human animals.
New Media, New Hope
Fortunately, today these lies and myths have been exposed and debunked thanks to a cadre of truth seeking/telling media outlets. For example, when President Joe Biden said how disgusted he was over the “beheaded babies,” The Intercept, in stark contrast to mainstream media, was quick to point that Joe Biden’s words were jarring and did not represent the truth.
The media defends Israel – and shames itself. The world is not what it was yesteryear. Mainstream media has failed miserably, but other media platforms have courageously filled the void. The Electronic Intifada and The Intercept are some examples. This has resulted in a huge paradigm shift: The needle has shifted in favor of the Palestinians.
