This behavior by the New York Times is nothing new. Previously, 21WIRE has reported how this newspaper sanitized its headlines in order to placate Saudi Arabia in its coverage the kingdom’s illegal war on Yemen War. When dealing with Israel however, the practice of whitewashing is taken to a whole new level. For anyone who has objectively monitored US or UK mainstream media coverage of anything related to Palestine and Israel will have naturally observed how words are carefully selected so as to never let Israel appear to ever be the instigator or be on the wrong side of any moral of ‘security’ argument. The results of this policy of kowtowing to the Israel Lobby have been devastating for the native Palestinian population. Pervasive media whitewashing has allowed the government in Tel Aviv to repeatedly and illegally carry out state-sanctioned mass murder and terrorize the indigenous Arab population living under the world’s most brutal and repressive, far-right ethno-nationalist military occupation in modern history. With media reporting obscured by political influence, the American or European public haven’t a scant clue what is actually happening in occupied Palestine, nor do Americans have the faintest clue that their own public funds are going to subsidize the Israel military. Media compliance to ‘the cause’ also means that western politicians will not feel any significant public opinion backlash for their role in facilitating this sordid state of affairs and accepting cash from the Israeli Lobby.
This Israeli Lobby regards this policy of waging a propaganda war in the West and ‘managing’ the Western media coverage is known as Hasbara, which Israelis claim is merely a form as “public diplomacy.” In reality, this is an all-out effort to ‘manage’ Western media narratives with the primary objective of covering-up and spinning its litany of international war crimes.
Hasbara takes many forms, and even carries with it an obligatory self-delusional defense mechanism which convinces the practitioner that the victimizer is somehow the victim, and that the path to universal vindication can be won by simply ‘making a better case for Israel.’ Thus, you will often hear arguments like this in the inner Jewish dialogue, as admitted in the Jerusalem Post: “Why doesn’t Israel do a better job in presenting its case?” In other words, “Why does Israel fail so miserably with hasbara?” As if the only thing that matters is how well you explain away the crime, and not what you’ve done in reality.
As Israel launched its latest fool’s errand in Gaza this week, in addition to its failure the administer its illegal occupation, the world can also witness its increasingly Hasbara machine in action. However, for the New York Times – this is also an egregious case of fake news.
RT International reports…
An American journalist who pointed out the extensive edits the New York Times made to its article about the Israeli bombing of Gaza found himself in a heated Twitter argument with the Israeli consulate.
A Twitter account “Editing The Gray Lady,” which tracks edits to the Times, revealed on Monday how the US paper of record changed its headlines and copy to describe the events in Gaza.
“Incredible propaganda,” Ben Norton, a New York-based writer for The Real News, commented on the edits, adding that the Times “bent over backward and rewrote its article to erase how Israel initiated the violence in Gaza, obscuring the fact that Gaza’s self-defense was ‘retaliatory’ and instead pushing the covert Israeli operation until the end.”
Change in Abstract pic.twitter.com/8Atce2OvEk
— Editing TheGrayLady (@nyt_diff) November 13, 2018
That attracted the attention of the Israeli consulate in New York, however, which admonished Norton to “get it right.”
Incredible propaganda: The NY Times bent over backward and rewrote its article to erase how Israel initiated the violence in Gaza, obscuring the fact that Gaza's self-defense was "retaliatory" and instead pushing the covert Israeli operation until the endhttps://t.co/2X0PqwsM3X
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 13, 2018
Norton was having none of it, laying out a timeline of events in Gaza and insisting he did get it right and the consulate was wrong.
“If the terrorist propaganda TV station of a genocidal terrorist group like Hamas is your source of news, we understand exactly what sort of ‘journalist’ you are,” the consulate replied.
“Bombing a TV station of a news outlet is a war crime, even if you don’t like the journalists running it,” Norton shot back.
If the terrorist propaganda TV station of a genocidal terrorist group like #Hamas is your source of news, we understand exactly what sort of “journalist” you are. pic.twitter.com/gz1xG9vok4
— Israel in New York (@IsraelinNewYork) November 14, 2018
This is hardly the first time Israeli diplomats have used Twitter to directly address journalists reporting on the conflict. In August, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon accused the BBC of lying over a Gaza story and demanded the British broadcaster “change it IMMEDIATELY.”
In July, Nahshon lashed out at CNN International to “STOP YOUR MANIPULATION,” saying they “got it wrong and not for the first time.”
READ MORE GAZA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Gaza Files
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