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Part 2
How Palestinian journalism works
But independent journalists simply donāt exist in the Fatah kleptocracy of the West Bank that autonomously governs the Arab population of Judea and Samaria. Reporting or photographing anything that the Palestinian Authority doesnāt want to be known can result in grave danger for the individual in question via its brutal security services.
That peril is even more acute in Gaza, which Hamas has governed as an independent Palestinian state in all but name since it took it over in a bloody coup in 2007. Their Islamist tyranny is absolute. Journalists based there would be forfeiting their lives if they allowed the Western outlets that employ them to publish material that didnāt reinforce their preferred narrative of Israeli villainy and plucky Palestinian āresistance.ā
To the extent that Western journalists operate in Arab areas, they are dependent on local āfixersā who guide them around, as well as act as translators for those who donāt know Arabic (which is most of them). The fixers themselves operate only with the permission of the terror groups or the slightly more moderate āFatah.ā And that is why, as Friedman explained, their reporting generally helps boost the Palestinian victimhood narrative and portrays Israelis as almost always being in the wrong.
Yet that isnāt the whole answer. These journalists are eager to bolster the Palestinian cause and are reporting about it solely from their perspective, which emphasizes Israelās illegitimacy.
That trend has been reinforced by the ideological sea change within journalism that has already overtaken most American newsrooms. In the 21st century, young journalists donāt aspire to objectivity or even pretend to do so. Instead, they see journalism as a form of activism. Since most are now the products of elite institutions where toxic left-wing ideologies like intersectionality and critical race theory, which falsely label Israel as a āwhiteā oppressor of people of color, have become commonplace, they readily accept the myth that the Palestinian war to destroy Israel is the moral equivalent of the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
In this way, the mainstreaming of an antisemitic frame of reference about the Middle East that demonizes Israel and any measures of self-defense it might take has spread from academia to the media.
Combining all these factorsāfrom the way Hamas controls reporting from Gaza to the willingness of reporters and editors to both embrace a point of view that sees the Palestinians as the underdogāresults in a toxic brew of bias that distorts coverage even of events like the Oct. 7 attacks. Under these circumstances, is it any wonder that editors at The New York Times, for example, were willing to believe the lies Hamas told about Israel attacking a hospital in the early days of the current war without checking first? They still have not fully accepted the truth that it was an errant Palestinian rocket that hit it, even weeks after it was verified by the United States and documented by Israel.
What is most frustrating about all of this is the unwillingness of these outlets to admit the truth about their coverage.
In 2021, the AP said they had no idea that theyāalong with Al Jazeeraāwere sharing a building with Hamas operatives for years. This only came to light when in the aftermath of Hamas firing hundreds of rockets at Israel, the Israel Defense Forces demolished the building, though it first informed those working in it to leave. It came out that AP reporters were threatened by Hamas. Thatās why their journalists wouldnāt report a missile launch against Israel, even if it took place under their noses, which it often did. What is outrageous is that their editors and employers in the West knew this and were equally complicit in covering up stories the terrorists didnāt want published while pushing ahead with those āscoopsā they liked.
www.jns.org
How Palestinian journalism works
But independent journalists simply donāt exist in the Fatah kleptocracy of the West Bank that autonomously governs the Arab population of Judea and Samaria. Reporting or photographing anything that the Palestinian Authority doesnāt want to be known can result in grave danger for the individual in question via its brutal security services.
That peril is even more acute in Gaza, which Hamas has governed as an independent Palestinian state in all but name since it took it over in a bloody coup in 2007. Their Islamist tyranny is absolute. Journalists based there would be forfeiting their lives if they allowed the Western outlets that employ them to publish material that didnāt reinforce their preferred narrative of Israeli villainy and plucky Palestinian āresistance.ā
To the extent that Western journalists operate in Arab areas, they are dependent on local āfixersā who guide them around, as well as act as translators for those who donāt know Arabic (which is most of them). The fixers themselves operate only with the permission of the terror groups or the slightly more moderate āFatah.ā And that is why, as Friedman explained, their reporting generally helps boost the Palestinian victimhood narrative and portrays Israelis as almost always being in the wrong.
Yet that isnāt the whole answer. These journalists are eager to bolster the Palestinian cause and are reporting about it solely from their perspective, which emphasizes Israelās illegitimacy.
That trend has been reinforced by the ideological sea change within journalism that has already overtaken most American newsrooms. In the 21st century, young journalists donāt aspire to objectivity or even pretend to do so. Instead, they see journalism as a form of activism. Since most are now the products of elite institutions where toxic left-wing ideologies like intersectionality and critical race theory, which falsely label Israel as a āwhiteā oppressor of people of color, have become commonplace, they readily accept the myth that the Palestinian war to destroy Israel is the moral equivalent of the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
In this way, the mainstreaming of an antisemitic frame of reference about the Middle East that demonizes Israel and any measures of self-defense it might take has spread from academia to the media.
Combining all these factorsāfrom the way Hamas controls reporting from Gaza to the willingness of reporters and editors to both embrace a point of view that sees the Palestinians as the underdogāresults in a toxic brew of bias that distorts coverage even of events like the Oct. 7 attacks. Under these circumstances, is it any wonder that editors at The New York Times, for example, were willing to believe the lies Hamas told about Israel attacking a hospital in the early days of the current war without checking first? They still have not fully accepted the truth that it was an errant Palestinian rocket that hit it, even weeks after it was verified by the United States and documented by Israel.
What is most frustrating about all of this is the unwillingness of these outlets to admit the truth about their coverage.
In 2021, the AP said they had no idea that theyāalong with Al Jazeeraāwere sharing a building with Hamas operatives for years. This only came to light when in the aftermath of Hamas firing hundreds of rockets at Israel, the Israel Defense Forces demolished the building, though it first informed those working in it to leave. It came out that AP reporters were threatened by Hamas. Thatās why their journalists wouldnāt report a missile launch against Israel, even if it took place under their noses, which it often did. What is outrageous is that their editors and employers in the West knew this and were equally complicit in covering up stories the terrorists didnāt want published while pushing ahead with those āscoopsā they liked.
Journalists who aid terrorists help mainstream Jew-hatred - JNS.org
Documentation that freelance photographers working for mainstream outlets helped facilitate the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre shows why coverage of Israel has always been skewed.
www.jns.org
