Hasbara's Birth: Israel's War on Media Exposed

 

Ever since Israel’s October 1st invasion of Lebanon, the Western media has been a witting, willing accomplice to the sadistic, criminal assault. Mainstream journalists have worked overtime to whitewash, distort, and conceal the Zionist entity’s murderous rampage, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, and injured and displaced many more. Serving as Tel Aviv’s perpetual megaphone and apologist is a role for which major news outlets have eagerly volunteered for decades. Their crusade has only become turbocharged following the Gaza genocide erupting.

In the first week of October, Israeli Occupation Forces fired 355 bullets at a car containing a five-year-old, then shot at rescue workers who rushed to save her life. A horrific crime - yet, per mainstream headlines, she was simply a “girl killed in Gaza”. The circumstances and perpetrators of her death, if mentioned at all, were invariably buried at the bottom of reports, well-hidden from the 80% of people who only read headlines, not accompanying articles.

By contrast, on October 15th, Sky News was very keen that its viewers know the names and faces of four “teenage” IOF soldiers “killed” in a “Hezbollah drone attack”, therefore humanizing and infantalising individuals who, by mere token of their service in the Zionist entity’s military forces, are definitionally guilty of genocide. In passing, the same report briskly noted: “‘23 die’ in Gaza school strike”. Their identities, ages, and photos, let alone clarity on who or what murdered them, weren’t provided.

Moreover, the inverted commas incongruously hovering around the number of Palestinians killed subtly undermined that claim’s credibility, while reducing the defenseless child victims to a mere afterthought, compared to the considerably more important quartet of deceased IOF genocidaires. As MintPress News senior staff writer Alan MacLeod put it, “in years to come, students in university departments around the world will be studying the propaganda embedded in this headline. It’s truly incredible how much propaganda has been packed into 16 words.”

The mainstream media’s systematic use of distancing, evasive language, omission and other duplicitous chicanery to downplay or outright justify Israel’s murder of innocent civilians, while simultaneously dehumanizing their victims and delegitimizing Palestinian resistance against brutal, illegal IOF occupation, is as unconscionable as it is well-documented. Amazingly though, ‘twasn’t ever thus. Once upon a time, mainstream news networks exposed Zionist crimes without qualification, and anchors and pundits openly condemned these actions on live TV, to audiences of millions.

The story of how Western media was transformed into the Zionist entity’s doting, servile propaganda appendage is not only a fascinating and sordid hidden chronicle. It is a deeply educational lesson in how imperial power can so easily subordinate supposed arbiters of truth to its will. Comprehending how we got to where we are furthermore equips us with the tools to assess, identify, and deconstruct lies large and small - and effectively challenge and counter not only Israel’s falsehoods, but entire sick, settler colonial endeavor.  (more...)

Hasbara's Birth: Israel's War on Media Exposed