XPost: or.politics, alt.usage.english, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: nyc.politics   
   From: void@invalid.noy   
      
   by Ramzy Baroud Posted onApril 19, 2024   
      
   The New York Times coverage of the Israeli carnage in Gaza, like that   
   of other mainstream US media, is a disgrace to journalism.   
      
   This assertion should not surprise anyone. US media is driven neither   
   by facts nor morality, but by agendas, calculating and power-hungry.   
   The humanity of 120 thousand dead and wounded Palestinians because of   
   the Israeli genocide in Gaza is simply not part of that agenda.   
      
   In a report – based on a leaked memo from the New York Times – the   
   Intercept found out that the so-called US newspaper of record has been   
   feeding its journalists with frequently updated ‘guidelines’ on what   
   words to use, or not use, when describing the horrific Israeli mass   
   slaughter in the Gaza Strip, starting on October 7.   
      
   In fact, most of the words used in the paragraph above would not be   
   fit to print in the NYT, according to its ‘guidelines’.   
      
   Shockingly, internationally recognized terms and phrases such as   
   ‘genocide’, ‘occupied territory’, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and even ‘refugee   
   camps’, were on the newspaper’s rejection list.   
      
   It gets even more cruel. “Words like ‘slaughter’, ‘massacre’ and   
   ‘carnage’ often convey more emotion than information. Think hard   
   before using them in our own voice,” according to the memo, leaked and   
   verified by the Intercept and other independent media.   
      
   Though such language control is, according to the NYT, aimed at   
   fairness for ‘all sides’, their application was almost entirely   
   one-sided. For example, a previous Intercept report showed that the   
   American newspaper had, between October 7 and November 14, mentioned   
   the word ‘massacre’ 53 times when it referred to Israelis being killed   
   by Palestinians and only once in reference to Palestinians being   
   killed by Israel.   
      
   By that date, thousands of Palestinians had perished, the vast   
   majority of whom were women and children, and most of them were killed   
   inside their own homes, in hospitals, schools or United Nations   
   shelters. Though the Palestinian death toll was often questioned by US   
   government and media, it was later generally accepted as accurate, but   
   with a caveat: attributing the source of the Palestinian number to the   
   “Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza”. That phrasing is, of course,   
   enough to undermine the accuracy of the statistics compiled by   
   healthcare professionals, who had the misfortune of producing such   
   tallies many times in the past.   
      
   The Israeli numbers were rarely questioned, if ever, although Israel’s   
   own media later revealed that many Israelis who were supposedly killed   
   by Hamas died in ‘friendly fire’, as in at the hands of the Israeli   
   army.   
      
   And even though a large percentage of Israelis killed during the   
   Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7 were active, off-duty or military   
   reserve, terms such as ‘massacre’ and ‘slaughter’ were still used in   
   abundance. Little mention was made of the fact that those   
   ‘slaughtered’ by Hamas were, in fact, directly involved in the Israeli   
   siege and previous massacres in Gaza.   
      
   Speaking of ‘slaughter’, the term, according to the Intercept, was   
   used to describe those allegedly killed by Palestinian fighters vs   
   those killed by Israel at a ratio of 22 to 1.   
      
   I write ‘allegedly’, as the Israeli military and government, unlike   
   the Palestinian Ministry of Health, are yet to allow for independent   
   verification of the numbers they produced, altered and reproduced,   
   once again.   
      
   The Palestinian figures are now accepted even by the US government.   
   When asked, on February 29, about how many women and children had been   
   killed in Gaza, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “It’s over   
   25,000”, going even beyond the number provided by the Palestinian   
   Health Ministry at the time.   
      
   However, even if the Israeli numbers are to be examined and fully   
   substantiated by truly independent sources, the coverage of the New   
   York Times of the Gaza war continues to point to the non-existing   
   credibility of mainstream American media, regardless of its agendas   
   and ideologies. This generalization can be justified on the basis that   
   NYT is, oddly enough, still relatively fairer than others.   
      
   According to this double standard, occupied, oppressed and routinely   
   slaughtered Palestinians are depicted with the language fit for   
   Israel; while a racist, apartheid and murderous entity like Israel is   
   treated as a victim and, despite the Gaza genocide, is, somehow, still   
   in a state of ‘self-defense’.   
      
   The New York Times shamelessly and constantly blows its own horn of   
   being an oasis of credibility, balance, accuracy, objectivity and   
   professionalism. Yet, for them, occupied Palestinians are still the   
   villain: the party doing the vast majority of the slaughtering and the   
   massacring.   
      
   The same slanted logic applies to the US government, whose daily   
   political discourse on democracy, human rights, fairness and peace   
   continues to intersect with its brazen support of the murder of   
   Palestinians, through dumb bombs, bunker busters and billions of   
   dollars’ worth of other weapons and munitions.   
      
   The Intercept reporting on this issue matters greatly. Aside from the   
   leaked memos, the dishonesty of language used by the New York Times –   
   compassionate towards Israel and indifferent to Palestinian suffering   
   – leaves no doubts that the NYT, like other US mainstream media,   
   continues to stand firmly on Tel Aviv’s side.   
      
   As Gaza continues to resist the injustice of the Israeli military   
   occupation and war, the rest of us, concerned about truth, accuracy in   
   reporting and justice for all, should also challenge this model of   
   poor, biased journalism.   
      
   We do so when we create our own professional, alternative sources of   
   information, where we use proper language, which expresses the painful   
   reality in war-torn Gaza.   
      
   Indeed, what is taking place in Gaza is genocide, a horrific slaughter   
   and daily massacres against innocent peoples, whose only crime is that   
   they are resisting a violent military occupation and a vile apartheid   
   regime.   
      
   And, if it happens that these indisputable facts generate an   
   ’emotional’ response, then it is a good thing; maybe real action to   
   end the Israeli carnage of Palestinians would follow. The question   
   remains: why would the New York Times editors find this objectionable?   
      
   Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The   
   Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book,   
   co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged   
   Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out. His other books   
   include My Father was a Freedom Fighter and The Last Earth. Baroud is   
      
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