ANALYSIS: US Media Shows Its Bias Against Israel, Jews Amid Hamas Attacks: Critics

A smoke plume erupts during Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern of Gaza Strip, on Oct. 19, 2023. (Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)

Oct. 7 was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with Hamas launching a barrage of terrorist attacks against Israel. Despite that, too many in the U.S. media have shown bias against the Jewish state, according to critics.

U.S. media outlets have uncritically relied on the Gaza Health Ministry, run by the terrorist group Hamas.

In one notable incident, outlets including The New York Times and CNN cited the Hamas claim that Israel bombed the al-Alhi Hospital in Gaza—only for U.S. intelligence to conclude that Palestinian terrorists, not Israel, were behind the Oct. 17 explosion. Surveillance footage has also shown that the explosion wasn’t at the hospital itself but at a nearby parking lot.

The New York Times subsequently issued an editors’ note expressing regret over its coverage of the bombing.

“Given the sensitive nature of the news during a widening conflict, and the prominent promotion it received, Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified,” it stated, in part.

Militants or Terrorists?

According to experts, media outlets show bias when they call Hamas “militants” or “fighters” instead of “terrorists.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called out MSNBC for using “fighters” during an interview on the network on Oct. 9. But his call for outlets to stop using such terminology for Hamas has fallen on deaf ears.

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“Fighters don’t butcher children, militants don’t rape women,” Mr. Greenblatt told The Epoch Times on Nov. 14. “These were terrorists. These were murderers, and they need to be described that way by every network, by every outlet, every single time they refer to them.”

It isn’t only left-wing media that has been using this terminology. Trey Yingst, who’s on the ground in Israel and Gaza for Fox News, has used “militants“ and ”fighters.”

“Too many in the media don’t want to offend terrorists by calling them terrorists. Others believe that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,’” Clifford May, a columnist and the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, told The Epoch Times.

“Which is as absurd as saying ‘one man’s arsonist is another man’s firefighter.’”

Sean Durns, senior research analyst at the Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, told The Epoch Times, “The use of ‘fighters’ and ’militants’ is one of many ways that some press outlets seek to minimize the genocidal ambitions of Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorists that seek Israel’s destruction.”

By softening the labels, the media justifies their actions and creates “a fallacious moral equivalency between what is happening and trying to describe the events since Oct. 7,” Asaf Romirowsky, a Middle East historian and the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Epoch Times.

Steve Krakauer, a right-wing media critic who’s a contributor to The Hill and NewsNation, told The Epoch Times that the terminology is about members of the media trying to avoid online backlash.

He said the incentive structure in the corporate press is “so warped” that journalists are “terrified” of seeming unsympathetic to Palestinians.

Palestinians are “portrayed by the extremely online progressive left as the perpetual victims, so they go overboard and make ridiculous editorial decisions like ‘fighters’ and ’militants,’” according to Mr. Krakauer.

Coverage of Pro-Palestinian Allegedly Killing Jewish Man

Another example is how some media covered the story of Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man who died in Los Angeles after being hit on the head with a megaphone by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator at a Nov. 5 rally, causing him to suffer a fatal fall.

An Associated Press story ran a headline saying, “Man involved in confrontation with Jewish protester who died called 911 and cooperated with police.”

NBC ran a headline, saying, “Man dies after hitting head during Israel and Palestinian rallies in California, officials say,” for an article that mentions that Mr. Kessler’s death was ruled a homicide by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The outlet later updated its headline to “Jewish man dies after hitting head in altercation at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies in California.”

The pro-Palestinian protester, Loay Alnaji, 50, a computer science professor from Moorpark, California, was arrested on Nov. 16 and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Also of note is the media coverage of the House passing a resolution censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Nov. 7. The House censured Ms. Tlaib for “promoting false narratives” and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”

The resolution notes that Ms. Tlaib had called the Hamas attack “resistance” to “apartheid” and that she had defended her use of the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”—a call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Outlets, including The Washington Post, NBC News, and The Hill, reported Ms. Tlaib’s rhetoric as mere criticism of Israel.

Difference in Media Coverage of Ukraine and Israel

The coverage in the media of the Israel–Hamas conflict contrasts with the sympathetic coverage of Ukraine, which has been fighting a Russian invasion since February 2022.

There are numerous reasons for this discrepancy, according to critics.

“Especially in a post-Trump era, support of Israel has become almost associated with a ‘right-wing’ perspective—which, of course, is ridiculous,” Mr. Krakauer said.

“Russia is seen as the ultimate evil in today’s establishment world, of which so much of the media exists, and so Ukraine gets the coverage that Israel will never get.”

Mr. May said he’s “pro-Ukrainian,” but it shouldn’t be forgotten that “Vladimir Putin wants to subjugate Ukrainians [while] Hamas and its allies want to exterminate Israelis.”

The difference is historical and political, according to Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center, which combats left-wing media bias.

“With the case of Israel, the issue goes back to a deep-seated sentiment the left has toward Gazans and the rhetoric used about ‘apartheid’ and ‘occupation’ that scratches their inner revolutionary itch that Israel was some sort of conquering force and Palestinians were innocent victims and the rightful heirs to the land,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Vladimir Putin being the lead aggressor against Ukraine certainly helps Ukraine’s case as the liberal media have been hellbent for what feels like a lifetime seeking to tie him to the Republican Party and former President Trump.”

David Gerstman, a pro-Israel media critic, echoed Mr. Krakauer and Mr. Houck.

“Ukraine became a cause because [the left-wing media] were able to use it against Trump,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Because Trump was supposed to be a big supporter of Russia even though his policies in office didn’t necessarily comport with that ... support for Ukraine was, I believe, a counter to Trump.”

Mr. Durns accused The New York Times and other legacy outlets of having “one standard for other countries and another one entirely for the Jewish state.”