The New York Times has been awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Gaza. This has shocked many who were paying attention to its coverage.
After all, a leaked company memo from November revealed that management explicitly instructed its reporters not to use words like "genocide," "slaughter," and "ethnic cleansing" when discussing Israel's actions. Times' staff cannot even use words like "refugee camp," "occupied territory," or even "Palestine."
All of this is done to erase the fundamental reality of what is happening in Gaza and to make it impossible for reporters to cover the situation accurately.
The Times does use emotive language like slaughter and massacre in reference to the conflict - but only when Israelis are killed. A study of the paper's coverage showed that Israeli deaths were 22 times as likely to be described as such, despite the overwhelming disparity in deaths towards Palestinians.
As MintPress News' Alan MacLeod demonstrates in this video, the Times has been home to some of the most outrageous Gaza headlines, including one that 𝕏 described hundreds of thousands of people fleeing a genocide as merely "on the move."
Israel is carrying out a genocide, the New York Times calls hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing as "on the move" pic.twitter.com/doCSpnEGvM
- Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod)
The newspaper is far from a neutral actor in this conflict. In fact, it purchased a Jerusalem property for its bureau chief that was stolen from a prominent Palestinian family, meaning that it is actively participating in the displacement of Palestinians from their homes. Many Times Middle East reporters have had close family members serving in the Israeli military, even as they cover Israel's wars - a massive conflict of interest.
It also published the now discredited "Screams Without Words" expose, which claimed that Hamas fighters systematically sexually violated Israelis, was written by a reporter with zero journalistic experience who also happened to be an ex-Israeli Air Force Intelligence officer. Times staff themselves revolted over the lack of evidence and fact-checking in the piece.
The New York Times was an essential vehicle for the Bush administration to push forward with the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and it has supported virtually every U.S.-backed coup around the world, as a MintPress News study cataloged.
In short, then, the awarding of journalism's Oscars to the New York Times for its Gaza reporting is a travesty and one that should not go unchecked.
Watch the The New York Times' Gaza Lies for more.
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.