Coverage of Gaza conflict by US media shows overwhelming support for Israel: The Intercept

ISTANBUL

Prominent US newspapers have applied double standards in their coverage of the Gaza conflict, mostly showing support for Israel, according to an analysis.

Leading newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published news biased against Palestinians during Israel's attacks against Gaza, according to a Jan. 9 report by US-based news outlet, The Intercept.

“The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza showed a consistent bias against Palestinians, according to an Intercept analysis of major media coverage,” it said.

Although 14,800 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 children, were killed in the first six weeks of the conflict, US newspapers maintained a close relationship with Israeli statements.

More than 1,000 articles regarding Israel's attacks on Gaza were examined, and some keywords and the context in which they were used were calculated.

Major newspapers disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict and used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis.

In the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, “Israeli” or “Israel” appear more than “Palestinian” or variations thereof, even as Palestinian deaths far outpaced Israeli deaths.

The report said for every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned once. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times or a rate 16 times more per death than Palestinians.

Also, highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like “slaughter,” “massacre,” and “horrific” were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians.

Only two headlines out of more than 1,100 articles in the study mention “children” related to Gazan children.

“Despite Israel’s war on Gaza being perhaps the deadliest war for children in modern history, there is scant mention of the word “’children’ in headlines,” it added.

The report underlined that biased coverage in major newspapers and mainstream television affects general perceptions of the war and leads viewers to a distorted view of the conflict.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed.

At least 25,700 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 63,740 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar