The Media, Where I Worked, is Getting Jews Killed
A horrific firebombing in Colorado and the slaughter of a young couple in Washington DC are just the latest terrorist attacks that took place just as powerful news organizations were spreading disproven lies about Israel.
A claim about babies in Gaza was carried unquestioningly by mainstream media, even though it made no sense and was soon debunked. During that time, a radicalized man opened fire in Washington DC, killing a young couple who attended a Jewish event. Then, an equally insane lie about Israel shooting at aid recipients in Gaza spread like wildfire in the news, and a man in Colorado firebombed a march for the hostages held by Hamas. One of the wounded, according to current reports, is a Holocaust survivor.
Is all this just correlation, not causation? Here’s what we can know for certain: The media has a responsibility to tell the truth always. It fails miserably, every day. That’s what I cover in my podcast and newsletter They Stand Corrected. And the media keeps failing to follow basic journalistic standards despite the massive spike in antisemitic attacks. That is an active choice news executives are making.
I saw media failures in action during my 20 years inside the mainstream media. I saw the separate rules just for covering Israel, all of which are designed to present the tiny dot of a Jewish state in the worst possible light. I saw how we lied about “occupation” and “international law.” How we stopped calling terrorism by its name when Jews were killed. How we pushed the antisemitic lie that Jews cry wolf by routinely calling “criticism of Israel” antisemitic.
Global battles are underway for democracy and truth. By helping Islamist terrorists, the mainstream media is on the wrong side of both. In fact, it’s actively discouraging countries from becoming democratic.
The world needs to be presented with the reality of Israel, not the imaginary evil ogre of a nation portrayed every day in the media. It’s necessary not only for the safety of a tiny minority, but also for the world to move in the right direction.
So after nearly three decades, I’m finally heading back — or heading home. I’ll be part of a delegation to Israel, meeting with people of different backgrounds and different walks of life, including survivors at sites attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres.
I’ll speak with these folks, and others, about what the media is getting wrong, and the stories it’s missing. I’ll report the truth about a democracy in which people have every right to fight back against terrorism.
Am Yisrael Chai.