Source: Mondoweiss.net
An in-depth comparison of The New York Times coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine vs. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza shows how the Times dutifully launders the news to fit the U.S. government’s agenda.
“Words like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre’ and ‘carnage’ often convey more emotion than information,” wrote New York Times standards desk editor Susan Wessling in a November 2023 memo to the staff of the “paper of record.” It was over a month into the current U.S.-Israeli war on Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians had been martyred by the occupation forces. Congress had voted to send tens of billions more in lethal military aid to the Zionist entity. Wessling added, “Think hard before using [words like ‘slaughter’] in our own voice.”
Why were Times employees told to “think hard” about conveying “more emotion than information?” Wessler did not specify. But nothing in this memo was new; it was a series of implicit reminders. Think hard about which narrative you’re constructing. Who your bosses are. Who your president is. Who your bosses and your president say the enemy is.
As anyone who had spent time during the last 18 months in the newsroom well knew, The New York Times has no qualms about emotionally condemning war crimes committed by enemies of the U.S. empire.
“CARNAGE WIDENS AS CEASEFIRE TALKS FALTER” was the front-page headline on March 11, 2022, accompanied by six aerial photos showing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On April 5 after Russian forces withdrew from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, leaving behind dozens of corpses, the front page read, “HORROR GROWS OVER SLAUGHTER IN UKRAINE.”
Ukraine and Gaza are not perfect historical parallels. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine still provides a useful point of comparison to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Both have occupied the media’s attention for months on end, and both represent struggles deeply embroiled in U.S. empire. (The argument that there is a breach in parallels because Gaza “started it” on October 7 only holds up if one ignores the forced expulsion, apartheid, and occupation imposed on Palestinians by Zionists for the last century.)
Russia is a demonstrable threat to U.S. foreign policy interests, and as such, The Times presents its actions in the harshest terms possible while uplifting Ukrainians resisting Russian invasion as front-line defenders of the Western way of life. (And of course, The US and NATO bear responsibility for proposing a pathway to NATO membership for Ukraine, a move they knew would provoke Russia — while simultaneously delaying that membership to shirk direct responsibility for Ukraine’s defense if and when Russia invaded. Ukrainians were placed in the middle of this bloody geopolitical dispute.)
In contrast, Israel is the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East and has acted as a proxy for its regional interests for decades. The United States has a vested interest in sustaining and defending the Zionist project — a project which necessitates the physical and cultural erasure of Palestinians. And mainstream Western media outlets like The Times dutifully use their pages to launder this interest.
Through a survey of every article The Times wrote during the first six months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and quite a few beyond that point), Writers Against the War on Gaza / The New York War Crimes conducted a comparative, qualitative study of The New York Times coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with its coverage of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
We’ve separated this study into four sections: War Crimes; Resistance; Ukraine Needs Weapons!; and Culture. Each section demonstrates a contrast between coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The Times reporting consistently condemns war crimes committed by Russia while in Gaza, it either obfuscates their nature or legitimizes Israel’s excuses for committing them. In Gaza the accusation that resistance fighters operate amongst civilians grants carte blanche for Israeli war crimes; in Ukraine the tactic is framed as that of a wily and brave resistance struggling against a military with vastly superior firepower. Ukraine’s “outgunned” army always needs more weapons, while the notion of The Times suggesting so for Hamas is absurd. And while the paper has provided in-depth coverage of the art and culture that is at risk of being lost in Ukraine, it has categorically ignored Israel’s violent campaign to erase Palestinian cultural production….