The Difference Between the Media and Propaganda

 

From Yaffa Shir Raz of the Reichman International School, Haifa University

Honesty, accuracy, information verification, fairness, independence, responsibility.

This is not a theoretical concept. These are the fundamental principles that differentiate between press and propaganda.

And when we're in the midst of a war for our existence, this question is not just principled - it's fatal. Because when a journalist violates these standards, he not only abuses the public trust - he puts them in grave danger.

In an article written in October 2023 after the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, I described the moral, ethical and professional failure of the elite newspapers - The New York Times, the BBC, the CNN, the Guardian - which almost unanimously stood by the Hamas propaganda, echoed his lies without even checking or verifying, and without really correcting even when it was already clear that the lie was revealed.

In recent months this sick propaganda has been infiltrating, like a poisonous bug, also into the conversation in Israel, with the movements and messages that have been developed in the explanatory systems of Hamas and Iran - penetrating the press, academia and Israeli politics:

• israel kills children"

• "Concentration Camp"

• "Genocide"

Same narrative, same framing, same rhetoric, same terms that Hamas and Iran have planted in their propaganda starting October 7.

Already on the 7th of this month, the Guardian published an interview with a holocaust historian from the Hebrew University, Prof. Amos Goldberg, who without hesitation used the horrifying pair of words "concentration camp".

And just yesterday - the Haaretz newspaper published an opinion column that sounded almost identical.

This is not investigative journalism. Not a criticism, nor a "human journalistic observation".

This is copy paste of the words of the terrorists.

A page of messages and rhetoric of Hamas and Iran - copied and adopted by the international press, and now mostly the horror also by journalists, academics and politicians in Israel.

And in the journalistic aspect - it's a kick in the head for any ethical, moral and professional code. Because a journalist does not make an effort and echoes a narrative of a terrorist organization and doesn't even quote the Hamas message page as if there was an investigation.

I don't step on our children, brothers and friends who are in the active field - just to show "morality".

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