When it comes to Palestine, the sacred laws of journalism are bendable. Optional even. Passive voice is king. Omitting facts is standard. Fabrication is permissible. Journalists become stenographers, and reporters become state secretaries, as they parrot police and military narratives. They tamper with evidence. They muddle, mislead, and misconstrue, manufacturing consent for ethnic cleansing and creating confusion around murders that are clear as day. The courageous industry that boasts of speaking “truth to power” is but a bullhorn for the powerful. We have seen this time and time again. It is almost satirical: anchors reject the data before their eyes to recite lies, and newspapers read like caricatures of themselves. When a 2014 Israeli airstrike on a cafe in Gaza blew eight Palestinians to shreds, the headline from the New York Times was “Missile at Beachside Gaza Cafe Finds Patrons Poised for World Cup.” Whose missile? Whose gunfire? Who is the sniper?
Mohammed el-Kurd, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal
