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By Norman Solomon a co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy Distributed in partnership with Economy for All, and excerpted from Norman Solomon’s paperback release of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine (The New Press, 2024)
As the Gaza war enters its 12th month with no end in sight, the ongoing horrors continue to be normalized in U.S. media and politics. The process has become so routine that we might not recognize how omission and distortion have constantly shaped views of events since the war began in October.
The Gaza war received a vast amount of U.S. media attention, but how much the media actually communicated about the human realities was a whole other matter. Easy assumptions held that the news enabled media consumers to see what was really going on. But the words and images reaching listeners, readers, and viewers were a far cry from experiences of being in the war zone. The belief or unconscious notion that news media were conveying of the war’s realities ended up obscuring those realities all the more. And journalism’s inherent limitations were compounded by media biases.
In-depth content analysis by the Intercept found that coverage of the war’s first six weeks by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times “showed a consistent bias against Palestinians.” Those highly influential news outlets “disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict” and “used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis, but not Palestinians.” For example: “The term ‘slaughter’ was used by editors and reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1, and ‘massacre’ was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2. ‘Horrific’ was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 36 to 4.”
During the first five months of the war, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post applied the word “brutal” or its variants far more often to actions by Palestinians (77 percent) than to Israelis (23 percent). The findings, in a study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), pointed to an imbalance that occurred “even though Israeli violence was responsible for more than 20 times as much loss of life.” News articles and opinion pieces were remarkably in the same groove; “the lopsided rate at which ‘brutal’ was used in op-eds to characterize Palestinians over Israelis was exactly the same as the supposedly straight news stories.”
Despite exceptional coverage at times, what was most profoundly important about the war in Gaza—what it was like to be terrorized, massacred, maimed, and traumatized—remained almost entirely out of view. Gradually, surface accounts reaching the American public came to seem repetitious and normal. As death numbers kept rising and months went by, the Gaza war diminished as a news topic, while most interview shows seldom discussed it.
Gaps widened between the standard reporting in media terms and the situation worsening in human terms. “Gazans now make up 80 percent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s continued bombardment and siege,” the United Nations reported in mid-January 2024. The UN statement quoted experts who said: “Currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent.”
President Biden dramatized the disconnect between the Gaza war zone and the U.S. political zone in late February when he spoke to reporters about prospects for a “ceasefire” (which did not take place) while holding a vanilla ice-cream cone in his right hand. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet,” Biden said, before sauntering off. On the same day as Biden’s photo op at an ice cream parlor near Rockefeller Center, where he had just taped an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night” show with comedian Seth Meyers, the UN lamented that “very little humanitarian aid has entered besieged Gaza this month, with a 50 percent reduction compared to January.” Israel was halting aid convoys ready to enter Gaza at border crossings. More than 10 policemen providing security for the aid trucks had been purposely killed by the Israeli military. Disastrous consequences were obvious.
“The volume of aid delivered to Gaza has collapsed in recent weeks as Israeli airstrikes have targeted police officers who guard the convoys, UN officials say, exposing them to looting by criminal gangs and desperate civilians,” the Washington Post reported. “On average, only 62 trucks have entered Gaza each day over the past two weeks, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs—well below the 200 trucks per day Israel has committed to facilitating. Just four trucks crossed on two separate days this week. Aid groups, which have warned of a looming famine, estimate that some 500 trucks are needed each day to meet people’s basic needs.”
While such numbers peppered news stories, countless real-life horrors were out of media sight that shower people in private agony and grief. Major media coverage did include some commendable human-interest reporting and investigative features about individual tragedies in Gaza. But even at its best, such journalism didn’t do much to convey the size, scope, and depth of the widening disaster. And the narratives of catastrophe were short on zeal for exploring causality—especially when the trail would lead to the U.S. “national security” establishment. American media frames around heartrending portrayals of Palestinian victims rarely also encompassed their victimizers in Washington. Top government officials readily voiced facile regret for the tragic loss of life, while they continued to put out enormous welcome mats for the Grim Reaper.
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The world had become numb to the everyday horrors of Palestine, so 10/7 it was.
I agree with the author: genocide fatigue is setting in, and much of the world is ready to move on to the next thing.
1/10th or so of the Gaza population has been eliminated, exterminated, or reduced, and starvation and disease should help kill off the rest while Israel repeats their strategy on the West Bank– same thing, but this time Israel will benefit from mass media-silence.
Yes, people say that the ongoing massacre in Gaza is not affecting us personally, but it is. Every day when we turn on the tv news and see dozens or hundreds of white plastic bags containing human body parts, body parts of women and children strewn around, terrified children, and whole areas of a city reduced to rubble, we become more inured to the horror. The empathy that, as humans, we feel toward other human beings is being eroded, and soon will be gone. We will become the pure economic man.
I am afraid that I am among those who say that ¨The job must be finished! (note passive tense)¨. No cease fire! Easy for me to say as I am thousands of miles away. ¨The job¨ is the elimination of the zionist state. Someone has to do it if we are to retain any self respect and human compassion. It won´t be the US, which is the perpetrator. The problem is that Palestine´s neighbors, majority Muslim countries most of whom have vast petroleum and gas reserves, keep all their money in US dollars where Uncle Sam can take it away if they misbehave. Those countries have a responsibility to also look after their own people. Sam has them by the short hairs. I wish I had an answer.
At one point the media would, when talking about the deaths of Israelis, say that they had been ‘killed’ but when talking about Palestinians, would say that they had ‘died’. I wish that I saved it but one female reporter in a studio was talking about three Israelis being killed that day while about forty Palestinians had died. Not only was this all in one sentence but it was within literal seconds of each other. And she did not even bat an eye.
Not only did she not bat an eye, but she was no doubt oblivious to what she was saying, having been hired to exercise that particular skill.
This not a reporter’s “choice” there is usually a sort of style guide, and the parameters of that guide must be adhered to, or the reporter is going to have to find another career. The problem is not reporters or editors but the System that has been in place by the owners of the media outlet who are either intimidated by or are Zionists in the worst sense of that term.
Except it is the reporter’s choice. As Chomsky pointed out while in the midst of an adversarial interview a long time ago, if reporters and editors hadn’t bought into the system they wouldn’t have chosen to be in their jobs. Not risking the loss of one’s job in order to avoid a difficult and life-altering event doesn’t make it any less a choice.
Yes, or are forced out of the industry: look what happened to journalists Gary Webb, Chris Hedges (former NYT bureau chief and Pulitzer Prize winner) the late Robert Parry, Robert Scheer and many other journalists. US citizen journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by Israeli snipers in broad daylight on video! Nothing was done about it.
None of that from the MSM is surprising. It’s to be expected.
More annoying to me is the “Israel will collapse” or “Israel is facing defeat narratives” in more alt media.
The country is still plowing full steam ahead with ethnic cleansing.
Still, other govts and the well-connected global elite are too worried about their investments to really put a stop to them.
I find both very bewildering. A lot of the voices aired here on NC (I’m thinking mostly of the Nima interviews) have this flaw.
I very much enjoy watching these interviews and find the views expressed on them a real breath of fresh air. But I wonder how much it’s just fodder for people like me. I click on each of these ‘X is about to collapse’ and that surely encourages more of them. I keep thinking to myself, maybe I’m just not thinking in the right time-scale and immediate means much farther in the future than I generally take the word to mean.
I hope israel and ukraine and the us hegemony collapse, and soon. But I feel a little manipulated and fatigued by the hype.
We should give credit here to the fact that Donald Trump’s campaigns have led to making it glaringly obvious that the mainstream media is, and the degree to which they are, under the influence of the political and other propagandistic forces – not just relative to the invasion of Gaza. This has been known previously of course, but the evidence has not been so overt and powerful. Trump and the MAGA crowd should be given credit for things they have accomplished, and there are others. The Democrats should be questioned as to why they have not done the same. I should say at this point that I am not a Trump supporter, will not be voting for Republicans, and am debating whether I can vote for Democrats.
We are in a deeply tragic historical moment, beyond even the horrors of Vietnam, the Assassinations, and even 9/11 and its aftermath because we are now facing two interesting historical movements: 1) the extraordinarily rich amount of information and thinking around the world available to us; and 2) the fact most humans in the West want peace, love, and understanding–but sadly the split between the oligarchs who run the Empire and the move toward compassion, equality, justice, in the larger culture is causing psychic splits in the population which causes them to easily go along with the oligarch’s move towards a kind of Orwellian dystopia. These two twin movements have been developing throughout the modern era. The result is psychic trauma in increasing numbers of people, particularly those most sensitive and compassionate. Those that maintain the mainstream Narrative are the direct cause of this trauma because they work tirelessly with every ounce of creativity they have to deliberately mislead people on a mass scale and those people, similarly, to avoid further pain, believe this obscene Narrative because if they admitted that the result of these reports is to turn Israelis into “real” people and the Palestinians into “huma animals” as many if not most Israelis believe and many American Zionists believe (try having a deep discussion with a Zionist and see what they believe about Palestinians Israel is systematically killing off). We have to face reality–our tax money goes to murder people on our behalf–to fully see that brings a kind of psychic pain. We will only see further murderous adventures even as we “accept” other races, other culture, other forms of sexual expression and so on–this is tragic.
If it is not obvious, the Western world considers it acceptable to commit atrocities when it serves Western geopolitical interests, if not outright desirable.
That’s why the West never covered the extent of Israeli atrocities against Palestine, which have been going on for decades. There was also never coverage of the Western backed 2014 Maidan Coup regime in Ukraine and the shelling of Russian speaking Ukrainians in the Donbass. Part of the reason for the lies of the West is because it would become clear that the actions of the Palestinians and Russians would be justified.
Before that the US media never covered the extent of Western atrocities committed during the War on Terror – against Afghan and Iraqis, among other nations. There’s a reason why the Afghan people saw the Taliban as their liberators. When the truth did come out, such as during Wikileaks, the US Deep State clamped down hard.
This has been going on for a very long time. Decades even, with regime changes, and a reign of terror run by Western intelligence hidden from the American people on purpose. The world seems to be waking up to the tactics of the US.
The answer is that the Western media is not invested in reporting in the truth at all. It should be regarded as the Ministry of Propaganda of the Western oligarchs and their proxies, such as the Western intelligence agencies. Its purpose is not to keep people informed, but to keep the Western public and indeed non-Western world compliant to its narrative that serves the Western oligarch’s agenda.
It’s also why they are clamping down on the alternative media.
The oligarchs are now the aristocracy who through bribery control the news, finance, the laws, wars and every other aspect of our lives including our right to free speech and our right to refuse to be inoculated with their latest pharmaceutical concoctions. The biggest comedy of all is the push to inoculate those few surviving Palestinian children before the bombing campaign continues. I remember G.W. Bush railing against the axis of evil before invading Iraq. Unfortunately we now have a more concrete example of what evil truly is.
I’m not sure that numb is the correct word. The great swath of USians are oblivious to the context within a grim history. The crime of Corporate Media is one of omission, perpetuating the myth that modern Israel came about through a just legal process, it did not. Its founding came about through extreme violence and its continued existence is maintained through ever increasing brutality. The violence has reached a zenith where a long desired outcome will be the extermination of the Palestinians. Such things have happened throughout world history, now, if one should so choose, they can be witnessed in real time on one’s smartphone.
I’m completely distressed from bearing witness, but I’m not forgetting, or forgiving.
We should call it what it is, racism and white supremacism.
Nevermind that America is steeped in racism to begin with, the history of American intervention in Afghanistan and the Middle East means anyone who served in the US military in the last few decades will have been programmed to view the “towelheads” as vermin, less than human, so as to make it easier to kill them. And as those thusly trained returned to society, and especially given that the US is a militaristic culture, that view was bound to leach into society and become predominant cultural belief. There is no deprogramming for people exiting the military, after all, they’re trained to be racists and then never untrained.
This explains why the US supports Israel. It’s the nobody left behind and common enemy mentality. Israel was left behind, is still out there fighting the “ragheads” people were trained to fight.
I should also point out that, with most Israelis serving in the military, the same effect likely contributed to Israeli society becoming radically racist.
Here in the land of the Free criticizing one group of Semites for butchering another bunch of Semites is Anti Semitic and can cost you your Job or cause you to be harassed and jailed by the security services, because Donors.
Which is a subset of “Because Markets”, Go Die.
Solomon does a good bit of discourse analysis and exposes the usual bias of the MassMediaCartel.
But I have a BIG problem with him: he, like so many on the so-called left, is engaging in gross hypocrisy.
While pointing out the atrocities, and decrying the flagrant injustices, he tells us to support the status-quo. The “bait and switch” routine of the faux-Left: Common Dreams, Democracy Now!, Roots Action… should be clear: we MUST vote for Joyful Genocide to “defeat MAGA extremism”.
https://rootsaction.org/take-action/3433-vpunity
Wow. That’s shocking. I’m voting against genocide. Voting for Jill Stein.
US Gaza policy won’t change under Trump or Harris,
but Social Security and Medicare, SNAP, and climate change are in greater danger from Trump than Harris. A vote for Jill Stein … you
know the argument …
Democracy Now is a standout in their coverage of Palestine, everyday there are clear and often graphic reminders of the brutality of the Israelis against the Palestinians. They have interviews with Palestinian and other Arab journalists. Other things they fall short, even well short on. They won’t have Jill Stein on, for instance, so big demerits there. I take it case by case.
Caitlin:
Rainbow Flag Genocide Vs MAGA Hat Genocide
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/09/09/rainbow-flag-genocide-vs-maga-hat-genocide/
True, won’t have Michael Hudson on anymore either. They usually repeat the Langley line on Ukraine as well. Hypocrisy Now! is a main outlet of “the compatible left”
Well, today they had Tariq Ali in person, who doesn’t mince words and praised Jill. I like him a whole lot. They had Ralph Nader on, via phone, who says in his estimation that well over 300,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Things like that is why I watch them.
“I agree with the author: genocide fatigue is setting in, and much of the world is ready to move on to the next thing.”
As genocide is the ultimate crime, its acceptance reflects the moral bankruptcy of a society. Perhaps if we were shown, in the MSM, the horrific photos of dismembered children, it would give us a perspective that there is more to life than celebreties and shopping. Many would find such photos morally repugnant: but then what is more morally repugnant than the ongoing slaughter of innocent human beings, fully supported by the U.S. government?
A lot can happen in Palestine once the US elections are out of the way. I suspect that there will be outside intervention to make it so, but the myth will be that Israel finally collapsed because of internal division and the Mizrahi Jews over-enthusiastic support and involvement in the genocide of the Palestinians.
The Collective West will, for the most part, happily accept the fall of Israel, although the German SPD and Green dunderheads will beat their chests with grief as total idiocy becomes unfashionable once again in Germany and they fall out of power for the next two, three or four generations, while other Germans breathe a sigh of relief as they feel the historic guilt lift from their shoulders; the BRICS countries will support the renewal of Palestine from the River to the Sea; Zionists will no doubt find themselves welcome throughout the Collective West; the more fervent evangelicals will have to grudgingly accept that the Rapture has been put off for another day; and the US government will find it has better things to do and more important things to deal with.
Israel has survived thus far as a collection agency for Amercan dollars which are then distributed amongst US arms manufacturers, security agencies, overseas agencies representing Israel’s interests throughout the Collective West and, of course, members of Congress primed to ensure that even more money goes into the Israeli collection box.
I do not imagine that Iran is biding it’s time before extracting it’s revenge from Israel for the murder of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil for no reason, and I suspect there will be a high degree of co-ordination with Hezbollah for the murder of Fuad Shukr in Beirut – and it will not take the form of pulling a Christmas cracker with Bibi. In fact, whatever form it takes, I ithink I can safely say that it will not end well for Israel and its leadership.
Unlike other commentators, I do not believe that Americans, the US goverment and it’s military – other than a few loons – will wish to become embroiled in a West Asian war against countries with whom both Russia and China have excellent working relationships merely to support a genocidal Israel with US boots on the ground or even the odd missile launched from a US base given Russia’s update of its nuclear doctrine. But again. it may just be my natural sense of optimism popping up out of the long grass once more and grim reality may mean that we must all come to terms with the Rapture at a personal level. Who knows? Who really, really knows?
There is one story that seems to be under the radar and that involves the water problem. The aquifer under the western coast (which includes Gaza) is close to being completely polluted by sewage and salt water. Water is now a privately supplied commodity using the pipeline built with Israeli subsidy.
And water is wet.
This is not news but internalized reality beaten into the populations heads over the past many decades.
This is why I prefer to keep my eyes on the ball:
1. The ICJ legal opinion released at the request of UN GA on the Israel’s occupation of West Bank and Gaza and their behaviour in the occupied territories: illegal and apartheid
2. The coming due date of Oct 25, 2024 for South Africa to submit additional arguments for continuance of their case at ICJ that Israel is committing genocide. Israel wants badly that the US stops by any means necessary SA for doing that:
https://www.rt.com/business/603712-draghi-eu-energy-prices-warning/
3. Waiting for the ICC to issue to the ICC Chief prosecutor the go ahead in issuing arrest warants for Israel’s PM and Minister of Defense as war criminals.
All these, if fulfilled, would greate the biggest, highest international legal framework making Israel a pariah state, which ultimately will percolate, at least in EU, North Africa, and Western Asia, cutting Israel from all connections in the area, ultimately.
Who is to blame for the genocide of the Palestinians? Follow the money. That our Congress is bought and paid for by the Israeli lobby is pretty well known. But who makes up the Israeli lobby? The Israeli lobby is made up mostly of rich Jewish Americans.