Alan MacLeod Profile picture
Senior Staff Writer/Podcast Producer, @MintPressNews. I mostly tweet about US/Mid East & Lat Am. politics, but complaining about corporate media is my passion.

May 11, 2021, 19 tweets

(Thread) Im collecting many of the most egregious media depictions of the Israeli assault on Palestine.

Please add any you've seen too. #PalestinianLivesMatter

1. The @nypost totally reversing who's responsible, claiming Hamas bombed itself with its own, non-existant jets

2. @dwnews' tweet implies that the Palestinian kids murdered by Israel were actually fighters themselves.

3. The @AP:

Palestinian rockets kill 2 Israelis, but 26 Gazans simply "die" under mysterious circumstances.

Nice switching between active and passive voice.

Also, kudos for leading with 2 Israeli deaths, which suggests they are more important & newsworthy than 26 Palestinians.

4. Presenting an unprovoked Israeli attack against a civilian population as Hamas and Israel "trading blows" is masterful propaganda from @Reuters, suggesting equal complicity and casualties.

5. The @washingtonpost presents an Israeli terror attack on a sacred Mosque during Ramadan presented as a “clash.” Many worshippers’ bodies "clashed" with Israeli bullets.

The word "clash" is a favorite of the dishonest journalist, allowing them to gloss over who is actually responsible. Every big outlet is using the trick.

"Clash", in mediaspeak, is just a euphemism for "massacre," as I wrote about in 2019 (see link).

fair.org/home/getting-a…

Much of the pushback against criticism of Israeli crimes is actually orchestrated by the govt of 🇮🇱, who pay supporters to form troll armies online. I wrote about this last week.

Big social media companies refused to comment when I showed them evidence.

mintpressnews.com/human-rights-w…

Here's @CBSNews claiming that "deaths are mounting on both sides". Is 26 (plus hundreds of serious injuries) to 2 really worthy of "both sides" treatment? And how is 2 people a "mounting" death toll anyway?

Another attempt to sow confusion where there should be clarity.

9. Israel is not "responding" to attacks. It carried out an unprovoked one against civilians celebrating Ramadan.

Also, note the use of the passive voice; "20 dead", not "Israel kills 20". Horrible reporting from the @EveningStandard

10. The Israeli government, as a policy, always tries to present itself as "responding" or "reacting", and not the initiator.

@dwnews, @cgtnamerica, @MSN and @CBCNews all followed the convention too, doing their work for them and whitewashing a massacre.

11. "Trade rocket fire" makes it sound like modified bottle rockets from Gaza are equivalent to the most advanced and deadly missiles Raytheon and General Synamics have to offer, @dwnews

12. A volcano- a force of nature- "erupts." Violence doesn't erupt: it has perpetrators. But that's the point of this lanaguage: to hide who is killing whom.

13. Here the @nypost presents Hamas as the aggressor, while Israel was merely involved in "clashes."

Unreal.

14. You'd never guess from this @Reuters
headline that the guy had rammed two Palestinians with his car before this photo was taken.

15. Huh, I wonder why that building "collapsed" @Reuters.

Here is Twitter itself adding to the propaganda blitz

Leaked 🇮🇱 PR docs urge its propagandists to stress they are fighting Hamas, not 🇵🇸 civilians. Twitter is doing its job for them.

Were those kids Hamas? Or those worshippers at the mosque? No. But Twitter defames them anyway.

17. It wasn't a "blunder"; it was a calculated and premeditated attack on a civlian population. Shameful article from @thetimes

18. In which the Financial Times presents Palestine as the aggressor and Israel as attempting to "calm tensions." Utter trash.

19.

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