As Israel killed more than 50
Palestinians in cold blood protesting the American embassy move on Monday, U.S.
corporate media failed to accurately report what happened in Gaza, once again
meekly protecting the government line, argues Joe Lauria.
By Joe Lauria Special to
Consortium News
Typical of the mindset of
corporate media reporting on what happened in Gaza on Monday as Israeli
soldiers killed more than 50 protesting Palestinians, is this tweet from CNN.
It says: “Death toll rises to at least 52 people during clashes along the
border fence between Israel and Gaza, Palestinian officials say. More than
2,400 people have been injured.” CNN’s new slogan is “#FactsFirst.”
Adam Johnson, who writes for
the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, responded to CNN with a
tweet of his own:
“This one’s got it all:
‘death toll rises’ — no one
was killed and no one specific party did the killing, the death toll just
mysteriously ‘rises’
‘clashes’ — launders all power
asymmetry
‘2,400 people have been
injured’ — all 2,400 are Palestinian but lets go with ‘people’.”
Craig Murray, a former British
ambassador to Uzbekistan, said on his blog that
he did a Google News search for the word “massacre” and found not one reference
to Gaza.
A New York Times headline
on Monday said: “Dozens of Palestinians have died in protests as the U.S.
prepares to open its Jerusalem Embassy.” Journalist Glenn Greenwald responded:
“Most western media outlets have become quite skilled – through years of
practice – at writing headlines and describing Israeli massacres using the
passive tense so as to hide the culprit. But the all-time champion has long
been, and remains, the New York Times.#HaveDied.”
[Perhaps because of pressure
from Greenwald and others, the Times on Monday night changed its
headline to “Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border as U.S. Embassy Opens in
Jerusalem.”]
Yet another CNN headline
simply read: “Dozens die in Gaza.” Journalist Max Blumenthal responded: “Maybe
they were old. Perhaps they were very sick. They just up and died! Who will
solve the mystery behind these deaths?”
Blumenthal later offered a
possible solution to the mystery: “According to the White House, Khhamas
launched 41 protesters into unsuspecting Israeli bullets.”
Projecting
Deflecting blame from Israel
is one thing. But projecting it onto the victim is quite another. Israel’s
UN Ambassador Danny Danon on Monday called for the U.N. Security Council to,
“Condemn Hamas for their war crimes,” because “every casualty on the border is
a direct victim of Hamas.”
He said in a statement
released by Israel’s U.N. mission:
“Condemn Hamas for the war
crimes they commit. Not only does Hamas incite tens of thousands of
Palestinians to breach the border and hurt Israeli civilians, but Hamas also
deliberately endangers Palestinian civilians. The murder of Israeli civilians
or deaths of the people of Gaza – each one of them is a desirable outcome for
Hamas. Every casualty on the border is a victim of Hamas’ war crimes, every
death is a result of Hamas’ terror activity, and these casualties are solely
Hamas’ responsibility.”
That’s one way to wash the
Israeli government’s (blood-soaked) hands of the matter. Especially if you fear
Israel will be accused of war crimes itself for its actions on Monday. Danon
mentioned “breaching the border.” But it is virtually impossible to get in or
out of Gaza without Israeli permission. Burning kites lofted over the barrier
that pens in nearly two million Gazans subject to an internationally
unrecognized economic blockade, supposedly constitutes “breaching,” in Danon’s
mind.
He would do well to consider
the words of Moshe Dayan, one of the Israel’s Founding Fathers, who said in 1956:
“What cause have we to
complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in
their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead
the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.” He went
on: “We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun
barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house. . . . Let us not
be afraid to see the hatred that accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds
of thousands of Arabs who sit all around us and wait for the moment when their
hands will be able to reach our blood.”
So on the day, 61 years later,
when the United States declared Jerusalem/Al Quds as the capital of Israel by
moving its embassy there, rather than leaving its status to negotiation, people
still trapped in Gaza protested at the gate fencing them in while Israeli
military snipers picked off more than 50 of them and wounded thousands more for
protesting their entrapment.
U.S. Parrots Israel, Media
Parrots U.S.
Danon’s position was callously
promoted by the White House on Monday. Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah was
asked several times to condemn Israel’s military response. “We believe Hamas is
responsible for these tragic deaths,” he said. “Their rather cynical exploitation
of the situation is what’s leading to these deaths and we want it stopped.” He
later blamed Hamas for a “gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt.”
Unsurprisingly, Congress also
lined up behind the Jewish State, mostly ignoring what went on in Gaza.
At the ceremony opening the
embassy, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, called Monday “a
monumental day in United States-Israel relations.” Senator Ted Cruz of
Texas, who was among four senators and 10 members of the House of Representatives
present, incredulously said moving the embassy “furthers the chances of peace
in the Middle East by demonstrating that America’s support for Israel is
unconditional and will not be bullied by global media opinion.”
Back in Washington, Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, proclaimed: “Every nation should have the right to
choose its capital. I sponsored legislation to do this two decades ago, and I
applaud President Trump for doing it.”
Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party
vice presidential candidate in 2016, tweeted: “Where are the democrats
condemning the slaughter in Gaza? If this was Assad they would be joining the
republicans calling for military action pretending like they cared for Arab
life.”
Handful of Democrats Speak Out
Bernie Sanders of Vermont
mildly criticized Israel’s murderous response. “Hamas violence does not
justify Israel firing on unarmed protesters,” he said. “The United States must
play an aggressive role in bringing Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt
and the international community together to address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis
and stop this escalating violence.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a
Democrat from California, was more critical: “It’s just heartbreaking. The
humanitarian situation in Gaza is desperate. Instead of cutting aid, the Trump
administration must restore our leadership role and do what it can to alleviate
the Palestinians’ suffering. The location of the embassy is a final-status
issue that should have been resolved as part of peace negotiations where both
sides benefit, not just one side. Israel will only know true security when it
is at peace with its neighbors.”
Representative Betty McCollum,
a Democrat from Minnesota, tweeted: “Today’s @USEmbassyIsrael opening in
Jerusalem & killing of dozens of Gaza protesters advances @netanyahu agenda
of occupation & oppression of Palestinians. @realDonaldTrump policies are
fueling conflict, abandoning diplomatic efforts to achieve peace.”
Pressure to support Israel on
The Hill is infamously intense. But what is the media’s excuse for being afraid
to simply report facts, such as that Israeli soldiers “killed” Palestinians on
Monday. They didn’t just simply die.
Just because U.S. government
figures are apologists for Israel, does not mean the media must be too. But that
would require the U.S. having an independent mainstream media.
When control of powerful
mainstream communications breeds self-aggrandizement and adherence to a line
pushed for so long because it got you where you are in the pecking order of
media culture, it seems virtually impossible to shift gears and take another
look at what you are reporting.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief
of Consortium News and a former correspondent for The Wall Street Journal,
Boston Globe, Sunday Times of London and numerous other newspapers.
He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on
Twitter @unjoe .
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