The sorry state of Western media...

00:0327/11/2023, Monday
Abdullah Muradoğlu

I understand your perspective, and I'm here to assist you. Let's proceed with the translation. The information about the genocide conducted by Israel in Gaza finds a distorted place in mainstream media outlets in the Western world, primarily in the United States. The history of this disgrace that Western media has fallen into goes back quite far. Professor Edward Said, an American scientist of Palestinian origin, thoroughly examined this disgrace in his book published in 1981, titled "The Islamic


I understand your perspective, and I'm here to assist you. Let's proceed with the translation.


The information about the genocide conducted by Israel in Gaza finds a distorted place in mainstream media outlets in the Western world, primarily in the United States. The history of this disgrace that Western media has fallen into goes back quite far. Professor Edward Said, an American scientist of Palestinian origin, thoroughly examined this disgrace in his book published in 1981, titled "The Islamic Network in the News" or "How Journalists and Experts Shape Our View of the World."


If Western media outlets have gone further in reflecting Israel's lies in the "Palestinian issue," it is evident. Since October 7, Western mainstream media has acted like an extension of Israel. Thus, they have participated in the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel in Gaza. They treated journalists trying to reflect the events in accordance with the facts as "guilty," applying disgusting censorship to both news and language.


Recently, a group of journalists working at the UK-based semi-official news broadcaster BBC complained to the Al Jazeera channel in a letter, stating that the organization only used terms such as "massacre" and "atrocity" for "Hamas." In mid-October, Bassam Bounenni, a senior correspondent for BBC's North Africa news, resigned, unable to tolerate the institution's reporting under Israel's influence. On October 18, in a message posted on the "X" account, he said, "I submitted my resignation from the BBC as a matter of professional conscience."


BBC's hypocritical approach is valid for other countries in the English-speaking "Anglosphere" world, including Australia and New Zealand. "Radio New Zealand (RNZ)" announced that it decided not to broadcast the words of a Palestinian guest on the grounds that it would waste viewers' valuable time. Other media organizations in the "Anglosphere" working with international news agencies like BBC are resisting calling genocide "genocide." These organizations are almost racing to reflect Israel's lies as real news.


One of Israel's blatant lies was that hospitals in Gaza were Hamas command centers. The Biden administration, as well as Western governments and media, supported Israel's baseless lie about destroying hospitals without any serious source. In the detective novel "The Mask of Dimitrios" by famous crime writer Eric Ambler, journalist Marukakis wrote a letter to the story's main character Charles Latimer, using the sentence, "If there are no events to support lies, events are created." Israel resorted to manipulated images, especially concerning hospitals in Gaza.


Western governments and media were aware of Israel's lies. Even the exposure of Israel's lies did not bring about a significant change in the attitudes of Western governments and media, as they willingly played a role in spreading these lies to maintain unconditional support for Israel.


People in the Western world are exposed to the deceptions of their governments and media. Hannah Arendt, a Jewish-American thinker, drew attention to a psychological precursor regarding the manipulability of humans. As Arendt emphasized, the idea of the manipulability of the public is not only embraced by the commercial advertising and sales world but also by Western media for political purposes. If Hannah Arendt, who escaped from Nazi Germany, were alive today, how would she interpret the disgrace, the misery that Western media has fallen into?


As part of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, a group of Palestinian women and children held by Israel were released. One of those who gained freedom was a young girl named Marah Bakir, 23 years old. Marah was taken captive at the age of 16 in the occupied West Bank.


According to a United Nations report, "Israel has established the world's first and only child military court." According to the Israeli human rights organization "B'Tselem," in September alone, more than a thousand Palestinians were imprisoned without accusation or trial. Of the thousands of Palestinians held hostage by Israel, at least 150 were children. Ordinary people in the Western world are likely unaware of these facts.

#Western
#Media
#Gaza
#Palestine
#Israel
#US
#Palestinians
#Prisoners