| Americans seeking truth about Israel and the Middle East can rarely find it in our traditional media. This point has been pointedly proven by a recent raft of media reports based on outright lies, cover-ups, twisted fantasies and blatant attacks on Israel.
Our legacy media have fallen to their most disgraceful depths ever. They no longer represent the truth, but rather promote a false narrative that strongly conforms to “progressive” ideology in order to promote leftist and other anti-Israel causes.
Here are seven of the most scandalous stories hidden, mangled or openly perverted by mainstream outlets in recent weeks:
1) CBS’ “60 Minutes” inserts fake Kamala Harris answer into interview. “60 Minutes” asked Harris if the U.S. had any influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Harris’s first confused, “word salad” answer aired briefly, but was quickly replaced—CBS inserted her shorter answer to a different question.
Since the fake answer was exposed, CBS has refused to publish a full transcript of the interview, as it commonly does. The Trump campaign accused CBS of making the edit to manipulate the election. What other reason could CBS have for falsifying the interview and refusing to release Harris’s real words?
2) New York Times idolizes terrorist mastermind Nasrallah. Following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the Times eulogized the terrorist leader as if he were a hero—calling him a “powerful orator, beloved by Shi’ite Muslims,” crediting him with helping “provide social services for Lebanon,” and, fantastically, trying to sell the lie that he wanted “one Palestine, with equality for Muslims, Jews, and Christians.”
The Times even had the audacity to call Israel’s Nasrallah assassination an “escalation” of the war Hezbollah started on October 8, 2023.
The truth: Nasrallah was a murderous terrorist responsible for killing countless Americans, Lebanese, Syrians and Israelis. The Times’ portraying him as a hero only attempts to delegitimize Israel’s fight against Iran and its terrorist partners.
3) CBS makes bloodthirsty anti-Israel rally in Dearborn sound like a picnic. On September 25th, a “Stand with Lebanon” demonstration featured antisemitic screams of “Death to Israel” and cheers to fake reports that Hezbollah was invading Israel. CBS, however, portrayed the gathering as a wholesome, civil demonstration in support of Lebanon.
One of the speakers, Osama Siblani, said, “To Netanyahu…We are going to take you back to Poland.” Who was CBS serving when it decided to omit any mention of the rally’s hateful, antisemitic rhetoric?
4) Bloomberg portrays Israel as the aggressor against Iran. After Iran recently attacked Israel with 180 ballistic missiles, Bloomberg’s headline claimed, “Iran pushed into missile fire by sustained Israel escalation”—suggesting Israel was responsible for escalating hostilities with belligerent Iran, obviously an absurd falsehood.
Iran began hostilities against Israel when its proxy Hamas massacred and kidnapped more than 1,400 Israelis on October 7th. Iran-sponsored Hezbollah then escalated—by attacking Israel a day later. Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen soon followed suit. Iran ramped up hostilities further by launching more than 300 drones and missiles on Israel last April. Iran’s latest missile attack clearly represented a further escalation against Israel. Ask yourself: Why would Bloomberg represent Israel as the aggressor, when it is defending itself?
5) CBS reprimands its journalist for challenging antisemitic lies. On September 30th, CBS’s Tony Dokoupil interviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates on Coates’ new book “The Message,” in which he unfairly condemns Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Dokoupil asked Coates tough questions like, “Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?”
Some CBS staff reacted angrily to Dokoupil’s treatment of Coates. As a result, Dokoupil was upbraided by top CBS executives, who said his interview didn’t meet the network’s editorial standards. Dokoupil was essentially punished for offending the woke sensitivities of CBS’s staff by deviating from the network’s anti-Israel narrative and asking hard questions—as all good journalists should do.
Who and what cause are CBS supporting when they criticize the truth in favor of a biased anti-Israel screed?
6) New York Times’ bogus report asserting IDF targets children. On October 9th, the Times published an article accusing Israel of purposely shooting Gazan children in the head, using testimonials and x-rays to support the outrageous accusation.
But at least two ballistics experts, including a former U.S. Special Forces member, and one radiologist, explained why the x-rays had to be falsified. The Times article’s author, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, happens also to deny that Hamas uses human shields so as to actually increase civilian casualties. Furthermore, the medical professionals who supported Sidhwa’s x-ray evidence belong to the discredited Palestinian American Medical Association (PAMA), which historically publishes misinformation about the Gaza war.
As yet, the Times has made no effort to defend the forensic inconsistencies of its X-rays or its sources’ testimonials. The Times knows Israel doesn’t target civilians, let alone children. What are they trying to prove?
7) NPR reports on Gaza hospitals without mentioning Hamas’ occupying them. NPR’s reports parrot Hamas’s bogus casualty figures and make no mention of Hamas using Gaza hospitals as headquarters and arms depots. NPR also neglects to mention that its Gaza correspondents are under heavy pressure by Hamas not to expose the terrorists’ use of hospitals as shields for their military operations. Why would NPR protect Hamas and impugn Israel, which never attacks hospitals without a military target inside them?
The media’s motive for their constant Israel-bashing is to promote a progressive ideological agenda. According to a 2024 All Sides media survey, the overwhelming majority of mainstream media lean left politically. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of legacy media audiences describe themselves as Democrats or leaning Democratic.
When it comes to Israel, the media understand that progressive audiences strongly favor narratives about allegedly downtrodden people—the Palestinians—struggling for freedom from a supposedly despotic regime—Israel. Despite the abject falseness of this narrative, left-leaning media loyally promote it, thus supporting policies that limit Israel’s efforts to defeat its enemies.
Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that Israel almost never receives fair, balanced reporting from mainstream media. Those seeking the truth about Israel and its enemies must find it in alternative sources, such as Jewish News Syndicate, and, of course, FLAME, as well as some social media.
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. The riots, vandalism and illegal trespassing on American college campuses have sharpened the knives of the Israel haters. It’s become clear that the “pro-Palestinian” protesters are purely anti-Israel and support the genocide of Jews “between the river and the sea.” Scandalously, we’ve also seen hard evidence that university administrators are willing to ignore or openly support the antisemitic hate speech and harassment of Jewish students—though they would never permit such behavior against other minorities. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of Jewish students and hate-free campuses need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Stop Terrorism on Campus”—calls for four actions to eliminate campus outlaws and to restore rights to all students. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME recently published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Mercury News. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. 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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