Complaints of biased reporting by western Media had gone high-sky

It is undeniable fact that Western Media was projecting the Israel as victim while fact is that israel is an aggressor and it was making attempts to grab Gaza .but it has shut its eyes from the continuous  bombardment on Gaza and killing at least 4000 palestinians including women and Children. 27 mosques, a church were destroyed.

Likewise, some American cable news hosts have eagerly waved the flag for Israel. And there are other troubling developments — the sacking of the respected cartoonist for Britain’s Guardian newspaper over a sketch of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu; the reported removal of three Muslim-American journalists from the anchor chair at MSNBC as the channel faced a ratings collapse after criticism of its coverage; a BBC report that labelled as “pro-Hamas” a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Gaza; and a CNN anchor referring to the Israeli-Palestine conflict as “good versus evil” after a fawning interview with Israel’s president.

All this comes in the context of a long history of distortion of the Middle East and Islam by Western policymakers and the media — I know, I have written books about it. But I have also seen many examples of critics of the Western media seeing bias at every turn.

A Pakistani friend pointed to a Reuters headline published a few hours into the crisis that talked about a “sea of bodies” in Israel and “scores of dead” in Gaza. A cynic might say it unfairly valued Israeli lives over Palestinians. A pragmatist might interpret it as nothing more than an editor on deadline scrambling for synonyms.

Media bias is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. The BBC has received about an equal number of complaints about bias against Israel as bias against Palestine.

“Palestinians have been in the news for decades, yet it seems that only occasionally do journalists and news organisations get their story right,” according to one study.

“Media bias is a persistent issue that often surfaces when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … coverage is often selective, stories get framed in a misleading way, or certain perspectives go missing,” says another.

The first was written by the former dean of the Jordan Media Institute, the second appears on the website of the American Jewish Committee.

The social media ecosystem

In this era of social media bubbles, when our preconceived notions are constantly reinforced by like-minded ‘friends’ and ‘followers’, it is jarring to see reporting that counters our deep-seated views.

The uncomfortable truth is that everything Arab and Muslim critics say about US and British coverage of the current conflict, supporters of Israel would say about Al Jazeera and probably even Dawn. In fact, Israel’s communications minister is pressing for wartime regulations, aimed first and foremost at Al Jazeera, that would jail anyone spreading information deemed harmful to national morale or helpful to enemy propaganda.

“The search for truth, even if one finds it, should not involve rigidity,” Arab American scholar Shadi Hamid reminded us in a Washington Post column this week. “When it comes to Israel and Palestine in particular, we bring our own preconceptions to any debate.”

While there is plenty of reason to fault the Western media for its framing of the Middle East conflict and portrayal of Muslims in general, some critics who see an anti-Palestinian bias in coverage of this crisis ignore the fact that news organisations across the spectrum are churning out an unprecedented flow of reporting about the desperate plight of Gazans. CNN is just one example. Even as some of its hosts voiced overtly pro-Israeli sentiments, others have shone through in their attempts to provide a more nuanced perspective:

 A CNN spokesperson defended the network and its embedded reporter Clarissa Ward by reiterating that “Interviewing voices such as the protestor in Cairo is why our CNN team is on the ground reporting from there. We continue to cover this conflict and those impacted by it, including dozens of voices from the Palestinian perspective, as well as from Israel.”

"We are determined to give our audiences as full an understanding of this story as possible,” a CNN spokesperson told Arab News.

Earlier this week, a video in which a pro-Palestinian protester confronts CNN’ Ward at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and accuses her of biased reporting has gone viral on social media, racking up thousands of views on X, TikTok and Instagram.

The protester, identified as Egyptian podcaster and stand-up comic Rahma Zein, is seen calling out to Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, saying: “Come talk to me like a human being. We are watching an occupation … and we are watching the result of your silence (and) of your misrepresentation of Arabs.”

She goes on to accuse Western media organizations of changing the narrative surrounding the conflict.

“You own the narrative, you own the United Nations, you own Hollywood, you own all these mouthpieces. Where are our voices?” she asks.

“We’ve been watching your channel and instead of mourning our dead, instead of mourning these Palestinian children, we’ve been having to deal with more dehumanization of Arabs.”

Many users on social media shared the video and spoke up in support of Zein’s comments.

British journalist Harry Fear has accused Western media of exhibiting bias in its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, saying the "overarching storytelling" is based on the Israeli narrative.

Speaking to Anadolu, Fear, known for directing the 2019 documentary, Gaza: Still Alive, critiqued the language used by mainstream Western media while reporting on the conflict that flared up last week after a surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel.

Since then, Israel has continued heavy bombardment of Gaza, and has cut its water and electricity supplies, further worsening the living conditions of the territory that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.

"What we are looking at now is a bloodbath, a bloodbath designed to exact revenge on the Gaza population," Fear said.

He said the Western media focused on unverified information about Israeli civilians, while neglecting the suffering of Palestinian civilians, especially children who were killed over the years.

Singling out the BBC and other reputed media organizations for their choice of words when covering the Gaza conflict, Fear said the British public broadcaster used distinct terminology in its reporting, referring to those killed in Gaza as "died," and those in Israel as "killed."

Fear also criticized other mainstream outlets for their apparent lack of empathy towards Palestinian civilians.

"Because Palestinians have basically been categorized effectively as unpeople, humans that are just, well, 'human animals', to use the word of the Israeli officials," he said. "And that's very much how the mainstream narrative captures the story as well."

He said "the framing of the conflict in this latest round of fighting usually completely silences the context of 16 years of strangulation and siege, an ongoing war on Gaza, complete denial of Palestinians, human rights, civil rights, political economic rights, really that dignity as humans at all, largely based on an ideology of racial supremacy and domination."

The British journalist also highlighted the rapid dissemination of false and manipulative news regarding the conflict, saying: "The point is, of course, this is an ongoing war between Israel and Palestinians, and part of that is an informational war. It is a propaganda war."

Commenting on an allegation by an Israeli journalist who claimed live on air that Hamas beheaded 40 Israeli babies, Fear said: "Is it true that Hamas carried out beheadings of 40 children? Well, it looks like that that isn't true, because there has been no evidence."

But, he added, "the story was then fed effectively throughout the English speaking western media landscape, including landing on the front pages of major London newspapers."

Children "have already been beheaded by Israel's aerial bombardments, but that is of little to no report in the Western reportage," he said.