From obscuring the West’s role in starving Gaza to sensationalised accounts of mass rape by Hamas, journalists are playing the role of propagandists, not reporters
@JONATHANCOOK, you highlight the hypocrisy of liberal democracies in their complicity with atrocities like genocide, particularly concerning Western nations' involvement. You criticize Western media for downplaying or obscuring suffering caused by Western actions, such as Israel's blockade on Gaza, and emphasise media complicity in diverting attention from Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Additionally, you denounce Western media for promoting sensationalised narratives about Hamas's alleged atrocities without sufficient evidence. You cast doubts on The New York Times' claims of systematic sexual assault by Hamas and censure the media for echoing discredited claims without proper evidence. Finally, you condemn the media's collusion in downplaying the Gaza crisis and perpetuating injustice.
@JONATHANCOOK, this is such an exhaustingly long article, how did you not have any space whatsoever to show even a single article in the many and varied Western medias that put contradictory and contrary evidence forward?!
You appear to save your most bitter vitriol for the NYT, BBC and Guardian, and aren't they the very media outlets that the pro-Israel cabal most target for their attacks on media?
Furthermore, where are your comments here on Substack under commentators that have put opposing views?
It's utterly bemusing when proponents of this war take the line of reasoning that Israel is somehow fighting for its very survival (I've seen a couple in the comments threads). To call Hamas an existential threat is perhaps the most grotesque, ludicrous inversion of reality.
Back in December, UC Berkeley Professor Jerome Karabel wrote in response to this nonsensical assertion, "the notion that Hamas poses an existential threat to Israel is untenable. The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, has perhaps 40,000 fighters and a relatively primitive military arsenal. Israel, by contrast, has 169,500 active-duty personnel and 465,000 reservists, with technologically advanced weaponry including an estimated 90 nuclear warheads. What made Oct. 7 so deadly was the element of surprise, not superior military capabilities." (see: https://forward.com/opinion/574196/israel-choices-existential-threat/).
Watch the al-Jazeera documentary where Israel's hubris is laid bare of everyone to see, as some officials concede that they didn't take the intelligence reports seriously (see: https://youtu.be/_0atzea-mPY?si=myc0m5Cbw25acSvV).
Think of it this way, Hamas' 'airforce' consists of fighters brandishing kalashnikovs on paragliders. The 'world's most moral' military has state of the art F-15s and F-35s.
If anyone's very existence is under threat, it is the Palestinians in Gaza who are ruthlessly being slaughtered, starved, maimed, tortured while their open air prison is being completely levelled to the ground.
The framing of what has happened is a weird thing to witness. Not just because it makes people look the other way (which they would’ve done anyway, probably), but also because it is (in terms of propaganda) very bad propaganda. I just can’t fathom anybody believing the shit that is spread all over the news. Systematically gang-raping women in the middle of a life/death battle situation?? Taking the time to put babies in ovens while being shot at from helicopters?? Makes me very weary about either the intelligence or the morals of western audiences.
Regarding the absurd media theatrics around aid drops and the like, a few weeks ago a CBC Radio reporter anthropomorphized that "aid trucks were unable to make their way through."
As always, a powerful, well-researched, well-documented, journalistic masterpiece.
This is the kind of evidence-based journalism that will sure come handy when these war criminals, the perpetrators of genocide, will be put of trial in a new "Nuremberg" style court of justice.
Thank you for all your efforts to uphold the truth and expose the evil against it
Thank for putting into words exactly what I have been thinking for some time. I am US citizen. Wish I knew how to convince my govt to stop arming and supporting Israel
Western media are just whores paid for their services by the massive organizations that serve as propaganda megaphones for the sick, vicious governments of Nazi Israel and The Empire, with its lapdog adjuncts, England and the conflicted, impotent EU. The Zionist monstrosity must be destroyed and The Empire brought down for the world to recover from this mass murder.
“..inside the evangelical Christian movement to explore its influence on US democracy and foreign policy.
Preparing for the “end times”, a grassroots pastor gathers an army of veterans in the heartland of the United States, and megachurch ministers provide spiritual advice to politicians in the nation’s capital .. They call for the “final battle” which they believe will trigger the second coming of Christ. Central to their apocalyptic prophecy is Israel.”
Praying for Armageddon: Evangelicals, the US and the Middle East
Thanks for pointing out these lies, mistruths and deceptive headlines that leave Israel out of the crimes being committed as well as the west's support of Israel as it commits them. The public can't afford to ignore this information.
Human progress is a delusion propagated by technological advances, politics, culture consumerism weapons of mass destruction etc..
Despite what we perceive as our advancement look back over the 100 years and see how much human activity is dedicated to Genocide. We are still at it in Gaza and Sudan probably other places as well. Once the jobs done there we will no doubt be at it somewhere else. It’s shocking to think the holocaust a mere 70 years ago. You could go as far as to say war and genocide is what we do. It’s ok to slaughter as long as you do it within the rules of Geneva convention The holy grail for waging war.
My thesis is, regardless of the veneer of progress, human evolution is still in the Neolithic era, possibly earlier. In that time our views on our existence were shaped by a lack of value for human life, ignorance of the world around us, religious fantasy and ritual . Anything that threatened the perceived notions of tribes of that time was met with brutal violence. Much like today.
Considering that it is utterly inconceivable that Jews/ Christian’s Muslims etc would accept that there is no God , no land was promised by a god and Israel is nothing more than a desert. That is the real truth. So We are thousands of years away from truth in so many levels. Neolithic
And as Camus said …it is only through the truth that any conquest of this world will ever be possible. We wait……
Thanks for this forensic deconstruction of The West's strongest weapon: the manipulation of language.
I can only express my gratitude for the strength and effort you take to get underneath Orwell and point to present subtler shifts of tone and word twisting that poison all institutions and structures throughout the West. This is the "banality of evil". It is much in keeping with your recent posts on Glazer and echoes the work of Hannah Arendt.
It is this normalisation of evil in our everyday language that disturbs to the core. Moreover, it is designed to catalyse prevarication - uncertainty among the general population. To make those who would act, doubt and to create enough of a constituency through apathy, delusion and manipulation to suggest that the perverted, psychopathic, violent desires of a small minority are the wishes of humanity.
These global ghouls strongly believe in the work Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew) started in the early twentieth century on manipulating human psyche to sell products and control people; to deceive, to manipulate. Orwell, among others, understood this and with the internet and mobile phone technology these ghouls now mine internet and phone data in a recursive loop: a catheter through which they both inject poison and suck out the blood and spirit of decency.
Constant wars since my birth; 1947. The current genocide in Gaza/West bank and surround initiated by our allies post WWII, the cold war(s), all the wars inbetweeen elsewhere around the globe....never ending wars. Will we ever learn that "war is not the answer"
Thank you, as always, for a well researched, beautifully written condemnation of Western culpability. I would like to add that the Free Gaza movement successfully sailed into Gaza FIVE time between August and December 2008 before israeli terrorists began attacking us.
We thought we set a precedent that Gaza was free to accept boats into its port. Israel had withdrawn its illegal settlers in 2005 and announced to the world that Gaza was free. We took advantage of those words and sailed into Gaza's port.
Seriously powerful piece.
@JONATHANCOOK, you highlight the hypocrisy of liberal democracies in their complicity with atrocities like genocide, particularly concerning Western nations' involvement. You criticize Western media for downplaying or obscuring suffering caused by Western actions, such as Israel's blockade on Gaza, and emphasise media complicity in diverting attention from Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Additionally, you denounce Western media for promoting sensationalised narratives about Hamas's alleged atrocities without sufficient evidence. You cast doubts on The New York Times' claims of systematic sexual assault by Hamas and censure the media for echoing discredited claims without proper evidence. Finally, you condemn the media's collusion in downplaying the Gaza crisis and perpetuating injustice.
@JONATHANCOOK, this is such an exhaustingly long article, how did you not have any space whatsoever to show even a single article in the many and varied Western medias that put contradictory and contrary evidence forward?!
You appear to save your most bitter vitriol for the NYT, BBC and Guardian, and aren't they the very media outlets that the pro-Israel cabal most target for their attacks on media?
Furthermore, where are your comments here on Substack under commentators that have put opposing views?
👏👏👏
It's utterly bemusing when proponents of this war take the line of reasoning that Israel is somehow fighting for its very survival (I've seen a couple in the comments threads). To call Hamas an existential threat is perhaps the most grotesque, ludicrous inversion of reality.
Back in December, UC Berkeley Professor Jerome Karabel wrote in response to this nonsensical assertion, "the notion that Hamas poses an existential threat to Israel is untenable. The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, has perhaps 40,000 fighters and a relatively primitive military arsenal. Israel, by contrast, has 169,500 active-duty personnel and 465,000 reservists, with technologically advanced weaponry including an estimated 90 nuclear warheads. What made Oct. 7 so deadly was the element of surprise, not superior military capabilities." (see: https://forward.com/opinion/574196/israel-choices-existential-threat/).
Watch the al-Jazeera documentary where Israel's hubris is laid bare of everyone to see, as some officials concede that they didn't take the intelligence reports seriously (see: https://youtu.be/_0atzea-mPY?si=myc0m5Cbw25acSvV).
Think of it this way, Hamas' 'airforce' consists of fighters brandishing kalashnikovs on paragliders. The 'world's most moral' military has state of the art F-15s and F-35s.
If anyone's very existence is under threat, it is the Palestinians in Gaza who are ruthlessly being slaughtered, starved, maimed, tortured while their open air prison is being completely levelled to the ground.
The framing of what has happened is a weird thing to witness. Not just because it makes people look the other way (which they would’ve done anyway, probably), but also because it is (in terms of propaganda) very bad propaganda. I just can’t fathom anybody believing the shit that is spread all over the news. Systematically gang-raping women in the middle of a life/death battle situation?? Taking the time to put babies in ovens while being shot at from helicopters?? Makes me very weary about either the intelligence or the morals of western audiences.
Regarding the absurd media theatrics around aid drops and the like, a few weeks ago a CBC Radio reporter anthropomorphized that "aid trucks were unable to make their way through."
As always, a powerful, well-researched, well-documented, journalistic masterpiece.
This is the kind of evidence-based journalism that will sure come handy when these war criminals, the perpetrators of genocide, will be put of trial in a new "Nuremberg" style court of justice.
Thank you for all your efforts to uphold the truth and expose the evil against it
Hats off to you!
Thank for putting into words exactly what I have been thinking for some time. I am US citizen. Wish I knew how to convince my govt to stop arming and supporting Israel
Western media are just whores paid for their services by the massive organizations that serve as propaganda megaphones for the sick, vicious governments of Nazi Israel and The Empire, with its lapdog adjuncts, England and the conflicted, impotent EU. The Zionist monstrosity must be destroyed and The Empire brought down for the world to recover from this mass murder.
By failing to mention Israel's atrocities may be due to the media fearful of being accused of anti- semitism.
“..inside the evangelical Christian movement to explore its influence on US democracy and foreign policy.
Preparing for the “end times”, a grassroots pastor gathers an army of veterans in the heartland of the United States, and megachurch ministers provide spiritual advice to politicians in the nation’s capital .. They call for the “final battle” which they believe will trigger the second coming of Christ. Central to their apocalyptic prophecy is Israel.”
Praying for Armageddon: Evangelicals, the US and the Middle East
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2024/3/20/praying-for-armageddon-evangelicals-the-us-and-the-middle-east
Thanks for pointing out these lies, mistruths and deceptive headlines that leave Israel out of the crimes being committed as well as the west's support of Israel as it commits them. The public can't afford to ignore this information.
Human progress is a delusion propagated by technological advances, politics, culture consumerism weapons of mass destruction etc..
Despite what we perceive as our advancement look back over the 100 years and see how much human activity is dedicated to Genocide. We are still at it in Gaza and Sudan probably other places as well. Once the jobs done there we will no doubt be at it somewhere else. It’s shocking to think the holocaust a mere 70 years ago. You could go as far as to say war and genocide is what we do. It’s ok to slaughter as long as you do it within the rules of Geneva convention The holy grail for waging war.
My thesis is, regardless of the veneer of progress, human evolution is still in the Neolithic era, possibly earlier. In that time our views on our existence were shaped by a lack of value for human life, ignorance of the world around us, religious fantasy and ritual . Anything that threatened the perceived notions of tribes of that time was met with brutal violence. Much like today.
Considering that it is utterly inconceivable that Jews/ Christian’s Muslims etc would accept that there is no God , no land was promised by a god and Israel is nothing more than a desert. That is the real truth. So We are thousands of years away from truth in so many levels. Neolithic
And as Camus said …it is only through the truth that any conquest of this world will ever be possible. We wait……
Thanks for this forensic deconstruction of The West's strongest weapon: the manipulation of language.
I can only express my gratitude for the strength and effort you take to get underneath Orwell and point to present subtler shifts of tone and word twisting that poison all institutions and structures throughout the West. This is the "banality of evil". It is much in keeping with your recent posts on Glazer and echoes the work of Hannah Arendt.
It is this normalisation of evil in our everyday language that disturbs to the core. Moreover, it is designed to catalyse prevarication - uncertainty among the general population. To make those who would act, doubt and to create enough of a constituency through apathy, delusion and manipulation to suggest that the perverted, psychopathic, violent desires of a small minority are the wishes of humanity.
These global ghouls strongly believe in the work Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew) started in the early twentieth century on manipulating human psyche to sell products and control people; to deceive, to manipulate. Orwell, among others, understood this and with the internet and mobile phone technology these ghouls now mine internet and phone data in a recursive loop: a catheter through which they both inject poison and suck out the blood and spirit of decency.
Constant wars since my birth; 1947. The current genocide in Gaza/West bank and surround initiated by our allies post WWII, the cold war(s), all the wars inbetweeen elsewhere around the globe....never ending wars. Will we ever learn that "war is not the answer"
People Planet Peace
Thank you, as always, for a well researched, beautifully written condemnation of Western culpability. I would like to add that the Free Gaza movement successfully sailed into Gaza FIVE time between August and December 2008 before israeli terrorists began attacking us.
We thought we set a precedent that Gaza was free to accept boats into its port. Israel had withdrawn its illegal settlers in 2005 and announced to the world that Gaza was free. We took advantage of those words and sailed into Gaza's port.