Western media neither neutral nor responsible player in Gaza war: Author

Muslimpress: A British author Dr. Matthew Alford  argues that the Western mainstream media is neither a neutral nor responsible player when it comes to their coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza, citing quantitative studies that expose the media’s pro-Israel bias.

“When organizations like FAIR, Media Lens, and the Glasgow Media Group examine the media systematically using quantitative analysis, we see that the media is not a neutral or responsible player,” said Matthew Alford, in an interview with MUSLIMPRESS.

He pointed to a recent study which found that major American news networks aired 105 segments on Gaza but only included the word “ceasefire” or “de-escalate”, with Fox News mentioning “ceasefire” twice as often “but only to ridicule people calling for one.”

“There have also been stark illustrations of bias. For instance, news anchors regularly insist at the start of interviews that Palestinians condemn Hamas, in at least one case just hours after Israel had wiped out the interviewee’s whole family,” he said.

Israel waged a brutal war on Gaza on October 7, after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” against the occupying regime in retaliation for its atrocities against Palestinians.

The Israeli war on Gaza has left tens of thousands of casualties, mostly children and women, in the besieged territory. Over half of Gaza’s residential units have also been destroyed or damaged.

Meanwhile, about 1,200 Israeli settlers were also killed on October 7, with the latest reports suggesting that the Israeli military itself caused many of those casualties.

“The independent news site called The Grayzone compiled a detailed report suggesting that Israel’s high-tech military response on October 7th itself caused numerous casualties, including many Israelis, under the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ (i.e. don’t allow the enemy to capture hostages). The severity of this retaliation has not yet been properly established,” the British author explained.

Alford, a co-producer of “Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood”, also noted that Hollywood has mythologized for Israel since the 1960 historical epic Exodus starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint.

He added that an independent movie starring Helen Mirren, Golda (2023), currently at cinemas, continues the trend.

“In our book ‘National Security Cinema’, Tom Secker and I examine blockbuster movies, such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005) and Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2007), which sneered at the Palestinian struggle,” he said.

Tellingly, he went on, celebrities like the comedian Amy Schumer defend Israel’s invasion of Gaza, while Susan Sarandon has been dropped by her agency for expressing support for Palestine, a pattern which he said has persisted for decades.

Alford also highlighted the importance of street protests led by Palestinians worldwide, especially in Western countries, yet maintained that whether the millions out on the streets will be enough to compel a constructive outcome is much harder to anticipate.

He warned that there is some “extremely disturbing rhetoric” coming out of Israel.“I even saw an Israeli children’s choir the other day singing sweetly ‘We will annihilate everyone in Gaza’. But that’s not quite policy. If it were, we’d see a regional war.”

Asked to comment on Western countries’ claim to advocate human rights throughout the world while throwing their weight behind the Israeli regime’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, the British author said key players in London and Washington are the biggest “virtue signalers” in the world.

They are always prepared to abandon the fad when popular or political support evaporates, just as with Afghanistan the year before, he said.

“Western states fostered a mass outpouring of support for Ukraine in February 2022, explicitly rejecting realistic peace opportunities, causing a million casualties, and all the while with zero prospect of improving outcomes for the region.”