I believe in the power of words. I believe in the influence of the media. I believe in the corruption of the pen. The New York Times changed the headline on the same article from “Palestinians died in protest” to “Israeli soldiers killed dozens of Palestinians”. Why, you ask? Because of public anger, because people spoke up, people wrote, people pleaded for the truth.
Despite my own views and those with opposing views, the reality is as is. Yesterday the US opened an embassy in Jerusalem and Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in protests. Palestinians were exercising what the US First Amendment espouses as—“Freedom of Speech” and “Freedom or the right of people peaceably to assemble.” The First Amendment guys… The FIRST. Israel is a Jewish state, a democratic state, a state that should imbue the fundamental democratic principles that define a democracy i.e freedom of speech, freedom or the right of people to peaceably assemble…(you get the point). The fact of the matter is there is an implicit bias, human rights are universal in theory but not in practice, people are valued and people are unvalued. Simple. One can only hope.
Media Accountability— that is what occurred when the New York Times amended its headline. That is the result of the power of people, the power of words, and of those willing to speak up against the corruption of the pen. I’m happy public outrage and more importantly courage meant accountability.
We can only hope for change and for truth and we will only achieve such accountability if we continue to question, scrutinize, educate, and question again for cold hard facts. Simply, because we deserve it. We deserve the human right to truth— however bad or sad or incongruent it may seem. We deserve it.
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