Western news media has been complicit in the Gaza genocide and needs to be held accountable

The time is now to hold the media accountable for its role in this genocide . . . To excuse the media's actions is to accept the normalization of violence against the innocent.

By Fareed Khan 

 

Despite the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas the world continues to watch a catastrophe unfold in Gaza.  Since October 2023 over 58,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel in a live streamed genocide, with a third of them children, and more than 800 babies under the age of one.

 

One of the most disturbing aspects of this genocide is how Western news media has been complicit in Israeli crimes through their biased coverage of the Israeli war in Gaza, and perpetuating Israeli lies without thoroughly investigating the claims made by Israeli officials.  One example is the claim made by Israel in the days following October 7th attack that Hamas soldiers gang raped Jewish women and beheaded babies. Based on almost 15 months of Western news media coverage of Israel's war on the people of Gaza it has become painfully clear that many Western news outlets have played an insidious role in facilitating what has been described as a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

While the ICJ is focused on holding Israel's leadership accountable for its criminal actions in Gaza, it is imperative that we acknowledge the complicity of many Western journalists and media corporations that have distorted the truth about the Palestinian struggle for freedom from Israeli occupation and oppression. The manner in which the stories of Palestinians have been covered by news organizations like the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN have enabled anti-Palestinian racism, and have enabled a cycle of violence that has been going on for more than half a century.

From the moment Hamas launched its attack on Israel a dangerous narrative was unleashed that resulted in support for the genocide of Palestinians. Israeli leaders made unequivocal declarations, dehumanizing Gazans by referring to them as "human animals." This rhetoric laid the groundwork for the blanket criminalization of an entire population, as Israel’s response escalated into a systematic and inhumane assault that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and entire neighbourhoods and cities reduced to rubble. Such gross injustice should have ignited a fierce moral outcry, but instead, we saw a media ecosystem that largely normalized the violence and failed miserably to hold Israel accountable.

Western media’s portrayal of Israeli crimes has been characterized by grave misrepresentation and opportunistic selectivity. Rather than providing a balanced view, they have often opted to amplify Israeli voices while marginalizing Palestinian stories and experiences. This bias is not merely a journalistic oversight, it is a form of complicity in the suffering and extermination of a people. By allowing Israeli narratives that depict Palestinians as less than human and mere collateral damage in a broader conflict, the media have facilitated a silencing or distortion of the fundamental truth -- that Palestinians are being murdered by a rogue terrorist state with the complicity of the West.

Moreover, in their coverage Western media have fostered an environment where Israeli atrocities can be understated and ignored. The Israeli airstrikes that destroyed Gaza hospitals and killed medical personnel, the stories of children murdered and maimed, and lives irrevocably altered, are often relegated to footnotes in a larger story line that focuses on the violence committed by Hamas while giving Israeli crimes a pass. In failing to challenge the official Israeli narrative of “self defence,” news media in the West have diluted the gravity of Israel’s crimes while prioritizing fabricated accounts of violence against Israelis. This is not only irresponsible, it is dangerous and constitutes a moral betrayal of the journalistic responsibility to report truthfully and ethically.

The pain and suffering of Palestinians, presented through the lens of Israeli brutality and oppression, and the longest occupation in modern history, has been systematically erased from the narrative. The lives lost in Gaza do not merely represent numbers, they are a testament to the Palestinian struggle for dignity, survival, and basic human rights. The Western media's failure to elevate Palestinian voices — a chorus that has bravely emerged despite unimaginable danger — cries out for justice. Journalists on the ground in Gaza, whose courage should be lauded, have been met with silence from their Western counterparts, as they risk everything to report on the devastation and despair unfolding before them.

The absence of journalistic solidarity also speaks volumes. While many Palestinian journalists have met tragic fates, being targeted for assassination by Israel, the silence from major Western newsrooms about their plight is both telling and shameful. We have witnessed a massacre of journalists, yet the acknowledgement of this tragedy has been woefully inadequate. The Western media's silence is effectively an endorsement of a status quo which benefits Israel, one that prioritizes certain lives over others in a blatant act of racialized bias.

As Western citizens and consumers of the news, we must demand accountability — not just from political leaders but from those who shape our understanding of international conflicts. The notion that biased news stories and deflections from the truth are acceptable in reporting must be challenged and eliminated. To persist in publishing and broadcasting unbalanced coverage not only marginalizes the voices of the oppressed but also undermines our humanity. Journalists and media outlets willfully ignoring the long history of suffering endured by Palestinians do so at their own moral peril.

The time is now to hold the media accountable for its role in this genocide. We must call out those who perpetuate lies and misinformation, who sanitize the brutal realities faced by Gazans, and who have embraced complicity over truth. To excuse the media's actions is to accept the normalization of violence against the innocent. 

Ultimately, what is at stake is not just the future of the Palestinian people but humanity's moral compass. If we allow this complicity to continue unhindered, we risk endorsing a form of violence that dehumanizes us all. The call for accountability must reverberate through our institutions, from the halls of power, to the editing rooms of news networks, to all journalists committed to telling truthful stories. We must insist on a truth that encompasses all lives — one that affirms the dignity of every person, regardless of their background or where they reside. The media holds the power to either nuance our understanding of global conflicts or contribute to their devastation. Let us advocate for the former, and in doing so, reject the complicity of genocide once and for all.

 

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