Shoddy news coverage of Israel by mainstream media over the past month indicates they’ve learned nothing from their plummeting trust ratings. Rather, the media shamelessly continue to promote an anti-Israel agenda at the expense of truth.

Recent calumnies slandering Israel clearly confirm a triumph of political bias over facts by legacy news outlets like NPR, ABC, and CNN.

We shouldn’t be surprised, given statements justifying the media’s betrayal of truth from executives like former Wikipedia CEO Catherine Maher. Now CEO of NPR, Maher asserts that “our reverence for the truth might be a distraction” and that there can be many “different truths.”

Unfortunately, the non-factual “truth” peddled by mainstream media promotes the false narrative that Israel is unjustly attacking poor, suffering Palestinians—mostly women and children—who’ve done nothing to provoke or deserve this injustice. Instigation of the Gaza war by Hamas—and Hamas’s subsequent war crimes—are ignored.

Rather, these media report Hamas’s claims—such as bogus death counts—as fact, while casting doubt on Israel’s democratic information sources.

Those who wonder why major media consistently distort the truth need only reference neo-Marxist (woke) ideology, which dominates college campuses and newsrooms.

Woke holds that Israel and her Western allies are white colonial oppressors, and their enemies are oppressed people of color. Why don’t these media ever disclose that the wide majority of Israel’s population are people of color? Because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

Rather than holding objective truth sacred, legacy media pursue a mission to achieve justice according to their ideological version of “truth.”

In just the last month or so, mainstream media committed any number of journalistic sins in the service of this non-objective truth and its base ideology—including outright lies, half-truths, critical facts buried deep in articles, and many failures to report realities that contradict their goal of defaming Israel.

Here are seven of the most egregious attacks on Israel in recent weeks, whose underlying purpose was to promote the victory of Islamist terrorists over the Middle East’s only democracy.

1) Israel “burns” Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital. On December 27^th, NBC issued the headline, “Israel burns northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital; patients and staff removed,” citing the Gaza Health Ministry. The media invariably cite this Health Ministry on factual matters, shamelessly validating a propaganda agency fully controlled by Hamas terrorists and notoriously dishonest.

In fact, the IDF didn’t burn Kamal Adwan. A small fire, not caused by the IDF, broke out in an empty building inside the hospital. Most importantly, the hospital served as a Hamas military base, and its director turned out to be a Hamas colonel—not mentioned in most news reports.

2) Israel commits “land grab” in Syria. After the fall of Assad in Syria, the IDF moved into the buffer zone separating Israel and Syria set up following the 1973 Yom Kippur war—a temporary measure carried out due to danger posed by Syria’s new Islamist rulers.

Yet the media portrayed Israel’s actions as a blatant land grab. CNN, for example, published the headline, “Watching with trepidation and glee, Netanyahu orders military to seize Syria buffer zone.” Netanyahu’s state of mind was a complete fabrication.

3) Amnesty International’s bogus “genocide report.” On December 5^th, Amnesty released a report accusing Israel of genocide—inventing a new, only-for-Israel definition of genocide. Media, such as NBC, parroted this libel with headlines like, “Amnesty International accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.” For more details, read FLAME’s exposé here.

4) False Gaza casualty numbers. Major media constantly cite casualty figures from “local health officials” (who work for Hamas) under headlines like PBS’s, “Palestinian officials say 44,000 have died in Gaza during Israel-Hamas war.” Yet, it’s common knowledge that Hamas manipulates data on casualties, adding natural deaths, combatant deaths, those killed by terrorists, and even people who died before October 7^th.

Furthermore, Hamas intentionally inflates the number of women and children killed, listing men as women, and adults as children. Yet, 98% of media persist in basing Gaza war stories on such fictional data, while just 5% cite Israeli or U.S. intelligence sources. Why?

5) Israel murders “journalists” in Gaza. Actually, no. Despite headlines claiming “Israeli strike kills 5 Palestinian journalists in Gaza”—from NPR—the truth was this: On December 26^th, Israel killed five Islamic Jihad terrorists moonlighting as journalists for the terror-affiliated Al-Quds Today. Reuters embellished the hoax by featuring the photo of a burned-out van bearing the word “Press.”

6) Gazans will perish without Hamas-linked UNRWA. A New York Times headline laments, “Israeli Threat to Banish Aid Agency Looms Over Gaza”—claiming the aid organization is a “critical lifeline” to “Gazans who have endured more than a year of war” and whom “experts” say “famine is threatening.” While the article admits that “to the Israeli government, [UNRWA] is a dangerous cover for Hamas,” nothing is mentioned about hundreds of Hamas operatives on UNRWA’s payroll or UNRWA employees who took part in the October 7 massacre. The article’s overriding “narrative” is about suffering Palestinians.

Meanwhile, mainstream media have refused to cover a new report by UN Watch documenting the deep, long-term “partnership” between UNRWA officials and Hamas leaders.

7) Media fail to connect terrorism to “globalizing the intifada.” When media report terrorist attacks, like the recent car-ramming in New Orleans, they usually characterize the crime initially as the work of angry individuals. Hence, we saw headlines like PBS’s “FBI says driver responsible for deadly New Orleans rampage acted alone in act of ‘terrorism.’” No mention that the killer was a radical Muslim whose truck flew an ISIS flag.

Likewise, virtually no media covering the next day’s pro-Hamas rally in New York City connected the New Orleans mass murder with demonstrators’ cries to “Globalize the Intifada!”

Why do legacy media display such contempt for journalistic integrity when covering Israel and the global jihad?  Clearly, when facts contradict the media’s preferred narrative of “good guys” and “bad guys,”— depicting Israel and her democratic allies as oppressors and their terrorist enemies as oppressed—they dismiss or twist those facts.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that as long as mainstream media prioritize their false narrative about Israel over journalistic integrity, they cannot be treated as credible sources by those who want fact-based journalism on matters pertaining to the Jewish state.

A note of hope, however: Given Facebook’s firing of all its internal fact-checkers (censors) for their over-the-top “political bias”—perhaps there’s hope mainstream media will reach the same realization. The vibe in America has shifted. Fake news is out. Telling the truth is in.

If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge.

Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.      Too often, American citizens take comfort in their insulation from Islamist violence roiling the Middle East, as well as cities in Europe. But the jihadists are clear that fighting Jews and Israel is just the beginning. At rallies in Iran—and increasingly in the U.S.—the crowds scream, “Death to Israel, Death to America.” They understand that Israel is just the tip of the spear of Western Civilization—because Israel was the birthplace of so many Western values. Today the Jewish state stands as one of the strongest democracies in the world—a defender of liberty and enemy of oppressive Middle East dictatorships and terrorism. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of the Israel-U.S. relationship need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Israel’s War Is America’s War”—describes how Israel massively defends United States interests in the Middle East and how Israel represents a roadblock to Islamic expansion worldwide. Finally, it explains why the recent U.S. foreign policy of soft diplomacy and appeasement of Iran has failed consistently. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME intends to publish to millions—in leading social media, as well as in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Los Angeles Times. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, the President and Vice President. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation.

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