How the media fuels antisemitism

Years ago, someone figured out that reporting the news was not enough.  For people to pay attention, the stories had to be sensationalized. That was just the beginning of the role that media would play in our daily lives.

Always needing to up the ante, the next progression was to influence readers by way of manipulating the narrative, in order to frame a story to further an agenda or goal, regardless of its veracity. And that is no better exemplified than in the way media reporting has impacted people throughout the world to view Israel as the enemy while terrorists are depicted as the new heroes.

One case in point would be the recent “60 Minutes” segment, hosted by veteran reporter Leslie Stahl, who traveled to Israel to interview former hostages Yarden Bibas, Tal Shoham and Keith and Aviva Siegel.  Although the story began with what could be characterized as a sympathetic look at the former communities which housed these individuals, the questioning was framed in a way to make events less black and white.

It's not easy to portray cold-blooded murderers as being on the same level as the victims who were forcibly taken from their homes and brought to the dark, underground tunnels of Gaza against their will. But somehow, Stahl managed to attempt it while asking Keith Siegel about his personal experience of being denied food. She sheepishly asks, “Do you think they starved you or they just didn’t have any food?” To which Siegel replies, “No, I think they starved me.”

How is it possible that a seasoned journalist, such as Stahl, would not have read or been aware of the myriads of reports, stating that Hamas packed their warehouses to the brim with stolen food and goods which they illegally seized from the thousands of truckloads of humanitarian aid constantly flooding into Gaza? Did she also miss the footage of plentiful produce, meat and just about every delicacy imaginable, in the street markets of Gaza? These broadcasts, aired for days, highlighting the fallacious tall tales which had circulated, all in an attempt to blame Israel for systematically starving the entire Gaza population.

It was the reason that former Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded Israel guarantee non-stop humanitarian aid shipments, much of which never got into the hands of Gazan citizens but, instead, got hijacked by Hamas operatives and doled out only to their fellow terrorists and supporters. Of course, few media outlets ran this story, but it was well-publicized through Israeli television and then disseminated worldwide. 

In an article entitled, “Why the 60 Minutes segment with hostages fell short,” written by Gil Hoffman, Executive Director of HonestReporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog, he writes, “Stahl said the hostages were resourceful, coming up with odd ways to win favors. Stahl called this bartering.” Hoffman asks, “wouldn’t ‘abuse’ be a better word, Leslie?”

Hoffman says Stahl missed a great opportunity to state that “Hamas could end the war immediately by releasing the hostages.” Instead, she “blamed the prime minister, saying ‘Netanyahu resumed the bombing of Gaza, breaking a fragile ceasefire that was exceedingly popular with Israelis.’”

It is this kind of disingenuous framing, of an ongoing war, lacking the important and relevant reasons, justifications and full context of why we continue to fight a war, foisted upon us, which brutally and savagely murdering our citizens while kidnapping and holding others under the most inhumane and abominable conditions known to man.

Yet, Stahl, in her obvious bias, sought to level a playing field which cannot be equalized no matter how hard one tries.

Hoffman uses the term, “distortion of facts,” and this is an accurate representation of what is happening. For some reason, the media feels the need to eliminate a clear two-sided account, where one is just and one is evil. That kind of clarity is too easy. Consequently, they have to muddy up the water, in an attempt to obscure right from wrong. Everything becomes relative where no judgment can be pronounced, because both sides have validity and standing.

It is a classic case of relativism – “the doctrine that knowledge, truth and morality exist in relation to culture, society or historical context and are not absolute.” (Dictionary.com) But the media goes one step further by either omitting chunks of the story or by granting a platform to a false version of history.  

When viewers hear protestors shout that Palestinians have been denied their rightful home, without any rebuttal to correct the false assertion, that is when the media crosses the line to help amplify a lying narrative, bolstering its accuracy.

It's sad to say, but so many of today’s media reporters are nothing more than activists in disguise, championing their particular political leaning, to sway their audiences to a certain point of view. Take an Al Jazeera reporter, who has encouraged Hamas to “treat protestors and Fatah members as ‘traitors.’”

This political analyst, Saeed Ziad posted the following on X, “Anyone who opposes Hamas should be considered a traitor and dealt with accordingly.” Who believes that such an incendiary comment constitutes fair and unbiased journalism? The guy clearly has a horse in this race, and doesn’t even try to hide it. Calling recent Gazan protests, “a civil war,” he is advocating for the continuation of Gazans to firmly support the terrorists who not only executed a bloody massacre on their Israeli neighbors but also upended their lives by using them as pawns in their deadly game of trying to destroy the Jewish state.

Left with no homes and no future, Ziad, who clearly does not have the misfortune of living the life of a Gazan, urges these people, who are left with nothing, to double down on their loyalties for the monsters who brought them to ruin. 

The media has fueled a fire which is unable to be doused. This doesn’t even include the very biased BBC or Reuters, which employed a Gaza photojournalist, who ended up being a collaborator with Hamas, to film the massacre as it happened. Nor does this include CNN or so many other outlets which strive to implicate Israel as the aggressor and the bully who deserved the payback she got for stealing Palestinian land.

The widespread pandemic of antisemitism has had a great deal of help by a complicit and dishonest media that has willingly done the bidding for evil actors. Consequently, they deserve to be exposed for their part in fueling the growing hatred directed at Jews worldwide.