Noam Chomsky called, he'd like his 'Manufacturing Consent' back.
Burying coverage of Gaza is not an accident or an oversight.
Anything in the news? Let’s crank up the New York Times website and look at the order of their front-page stories:
“U.S. Sues Apple, Accusing It of Maintaining an iPhone Monopoly” Wow! Tell me more! I am so emotionally invested in this story.
“Leaders Release $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill as Congress Races to Avert Shutdown” Nothing as riveting as the 1 trillionth time our stupid Congress has gotten to the brink of shutdown.
“A Mexican Drug Cartel’s New Target? Seniors and Their Timeshares” This is the worst thing Mexican drug cartels are doing and definitely newsworthy outside of the AARP newsletter.
“Surgeons Transplant Pig Kidney Into a Patient, a Medical Milestone” OK that’s pretty cool.
I’m getting bored with myself so to summarize the rest of the front page in order: a feature about psychedelics; some random Mad-Libs style shit about Trump being a unique and unprecedented threat; a story about Robert Kennedy Jr., for some reason; Trump; one more Trump; states wooing Hollywood to film there; anti-Semitism on college campuses.
And only then—after anti-semitism on college campuses—do we get to the newspaper’s coverage of the war in Gaza, in which there seems to be a significant development: a US resolution in the United Nations, announced by the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, that is not absolutely contingent on the release of the hostages.
This is followed by “Israel’s Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital Grows Into One of the Longest of Gaza War.” Never-mind, tell me more about the Apple iPhone monopoly!
OK fine, I’ll tear myself away from “Justice Department Sues iPhone” and read about Gaza. The first few paragraphs repeat Israel’s claim that the 140 killed people were all terrorists. Guys. Why did you go to journalism school? Why did you go to elementary school? This claim defies all logic and the laws of science. How does one, over the course of 4 days, determine and confirm beyond doubt, during the chaos of a military raid, that 140 people in a hospital are all terrorists, with enough certainty to end their lives?
Why the Hell would Hamas be hanging out in a hospital still, knowing that the IDF targets hospitals? Guys. Hamas is underground, for the grunts, or in mansions in Qatar, for the leadership. The people left at the hospital are patients, terrified civilians, and doctors and medical staff whose bravery is something I couldn’t comprehend if I tried for a thousand years.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Substance to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.