Media’s anti-Palestinian bias & Jewish sensitivies

 

Does anyone seriously believe that ethnicity/religion has no bearing on media coverage of Palestine? And why would a leftist seek to excuse a community (broadly) promoting a holocaust?

At a recent forum on Palestine I spoke alongside the managing editor of The Breach, Martin Lukacs, about media bias. In my opening remarks, I discussed the uniqueness of Canada’s support for Israel, the longtime head of Postmedia chairing an extremist Zionist organization and the media’s refusal to cover a poll highlighting Jewish Israeli racism.

Afterwards Lukacs (unprompted) denied any ethnic/religious contribution to the anti-Palestinian character of Canada’s media. His central observation was that the Globe and Mail was owned by the WASP (white Anglo-Saxon and Protestant) Thompson family and it was biased against Palestinians so anti-Palestinianism in the media simply reflected the establishment. He repeated the point in a subsequent comment in which he said the military-industrial complex and corporate lobbyists were wealthier and more powerful than pro-Israel forces. Lukacs emphasized that suggesting ethnicity played any role in Canada’s media bias offended him.

It requires only cursory knowledge of Canada’s media to know Lukacs’ claim is mistaken. His position is also morally bankrupt, inverting a basic moral principle.

Canada’s largest newspaper chain was established by Jewish Zionist Izzy Asper who imposed an aggressively anti-Palestinian editorial line when he added the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun and other daily papers to his media empire in the early 2000s. It’s well documented as it sparked a Montreal Gazette publisher to resign and Reuters to formally complain about their wire copy being rewritten in a biased, anti-Palestinian, manner.

Asper’s CanWest was saved from bankruptcy and expanded into Postmedia in 2010 by a Jewish Zionist board member of the news agency, Paul Godfrey. He was then president of the National Post and Godfrey had previously led the Toronto Sun. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, Paul’s son, Noah Godfrey, chaired the recent Walk for Israel in Toronto.

A thorough analysis of Canadian media ownership would no doubt uncover other examples of Jewish Zionist owners contributing to anti-Palestinian bias. But ownership is but a small part of how Jewish organizations/power/sensitivities impact the media.  (more...)

Media’s anti-Palestinian bias & Jewish sensitivies