How a lack of objectivity turns bias into truth
Three years after thousands of Palestinian anti-Zionists committed mass murder and sexual atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7, the world has seemingly sided with the perpetrators. College campuses around the world are full of activists who demand compliance from their peers and refuse to question their own beliefs.
It’s commonly asserted that social media is largely to blame for this shift, but it’s still arguably traditional journalism that lends this ideology the legitimacy needed to continuously validate the anti-Israel prejudice at its core.
A new study from the Yale School of Management raises questions about how the war has been presented in this context: whose decisions are news media consumers being taught to scrutinize, and whose are they being taught to overlook?
The study analyzed nearly 1,600 articles published by the New York Times between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 7, 2024, and identified a consistent narrative through “framing that assigns near-exclusive agency and responsibility to Israel while diminishing Hamas’s role in sustaining the conflict.” Setting aside the issue of spreading what is essentially terrorist propaganda, a news outlet that claims to be objective while consistently favoring one side regardless of facts should have lost all credibility.
The problem extends beyond whether individual articles portray Israel negatively. When Israel’s decisions receive scrutiny while Hamas’s decisions fade into the background, readers are given an incomplete account of why the war unfolded the way it did and who truly had the ability to change its course.
This kind of anti-objectivist way of being has become a persistent feature in campus discourse. Members of the academic community were some of the first to jump on the “free Palestine” bandwagon after Oct. 7, and pockets of these extremists persist both inside and outside the classroom.
I have experienced this firsthand at the University of Missouri. Students and community members have held weekly protests in “solidarity” with Palestine since the start of the war. Every Saturday afternoon, they march through downtown and campus, waving flags and chanting. As a student here, I want to know if their beliefs stem from these biased sources, and if they do, does the fact that the information has been proved to be biased cause them to rethink their stance?
That distinction matters. Do they know that Hamas were the perpetrators of this war when they killed 1200 people and took over 200 hostage in a single day? Do they agree that there were numerous deals Hamas refused to sign, deciding to continue fighting rather than make peace? Or do they simply see the responsive military action taken by Israel and place all blame on them?
If the latter is true, and these misguided viewpoints are actively reinforced by mainstream media, then it won’t matter how much action Jewish and Zionist students take. The one thing that would make a difference happens to be the one thing that seemingly doesn’t exist: fair and accurate journalism. Until that happens, there will continue to be a cycle of deep misinformation and the perpetuation of libels that villainize 0.2% of the world population.
Until then, the responsibility falls on us to do what our professors teach us to do in every other situation: double check the facts to ensure the result is the true and correct one. Seek out and evaluate opposing views as fairly as you can, and consider whether the beliefs you hold to be true about Jewish and Zionist students on campus are reflected in their actions. Before assigning collective responsibility to Israel for the war, ask whether your understanding accounts for the choices of everyone fighting it.
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Leore Tal is a contributing writer for The College Fix, a Journalism and Political Science student at the University of Missouri, and an undergraduate Fellow with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CAMERA.
