How the media manipulates

A look at twisting the Israeli-Gaza war

These days, when the media pushes an agenda, they rarely lie outright.

When you hear claims about misinformation or “fake news” by name-brand news organizations, they almost never make up facts. That’s too easy to prove wrong, and they’ll FIRE a reporter who does it.

Instead, their number one tactic to push a cause is by ignoring vital facts. I call it “narrative framing.” Essentially, they decide the story beforehand, then make sure every quote and fact supports that narrative.

For every outlet, editing is part of the job. They can’t report every fact or every counter-argument. The dishonesty comes in when they don’t ignore minor points, but vital information that counters their narrative. When I was at Fox News, I routinely ensured that my reporters reported the counter-argument side, a tactic that’s becoming more “quaint” by the day.

With the Israeli-Gaza war, here are a few ways that pro-Palestinian outlets play the game:

“Occupation”

Palestinians and protesters routinely say that Israel “occupied” Gaza, but that wasn’t the case. They did until 2005 when Israel forcibly removed Jewish settlers and all soldiers from the strip.

Given they’ve been gone for 19 years, how can anyone assert an “occupation”? By changing the definition of the word. They claim that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, with a highly restricted land border, airspace, and ocean access is an occupation.

Even if you buy that altered definition, which you shouldn’t, there’s another big problem that the pro-Palestinian side ignores.

The Blockade

Again, media supporting Palestinians like to refer to Israel’s blockade in the area. And while, yes, there are all those restrictions mentioned above, again they leave out two vital points. 

First: missiles and attacks. There’s never been even a year of peace where Hamas or other groups in Gaza have refrained from shooting missiles into Israel. Not just a handful, but thousands. 

And it’s actually well beyond missiles. It includes blown-up buses and cafes, random stabbings, shootings, and vehicle rammings. Without a wall, Israel couldn’t stop that flow of terrorism into its country. Even with a wall, Hamas built hundreds of miles of tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza and operatives into Israel to stage attacks.

Second: Egypt. Israel isn’t the only one in charge of the borders. Egypt does the exact same thing, something rarely mentioned.

The Egyptians built their own wall along the 8-mile border it shares with Gaza and has complete control over the Rafah gate. Egyptian patrol boats help enforce the blockade from the sea. Egypt could allow enough goods – or refugees – to cross the border to essentially negate Israel’s blockade completely, yet you’ve likely never heard the term “Egyptian blockade” or “Egyptian occupation.”

Minimizing Hamas

Its supporters call Hamas a “militant group,” and Israel calls it a “terrorist organization,” but both those terms minimize what it actually is, or at least was before the war: the government of Gaza. 

It was responsible for everything from roads to hospitals and courts, controlling billions of dollars, mostly from foreign governments, that flowed into Gaza each year.

The Hamas charter makes clear that “Jihad is its path”, and they act accordingly. Hamas has continually attacked Israel and made it clear that coexistence isn’t an option, only the destruction of Israel.

There’s more …

I recently saw a video from the media outlet Vox that employs every one of these tactics – and more – to present a radically biased view of the conflict in Gaza. I explained and exposed it all in the video below. If you’re interested in learning more, this is the one to watch.

I’ve been to both Israel and Gaza, and I can tell you firsthand there are good people on both sides of this conflict. But when media outlets decide the side of a story that you should hear and then employ subtle tricks to sway you to their side … that’s not journalism. 

- Ken