Revealed: The Israel Lobbyists Writing America’s News
By Alan MacLeod – Nov 21, 2024
A MintPress News investigation has found hundreds of former employees of Israel lobbying groups such as AIPAC, StandWithUs and CAMERA working in top newsrooms across the country, writing and producing America’s news – including on Israel-Palestine. These outlets include MSNBC, The New York Times, CNN and Fox News.
Some of these former lobbyists are responsible for producing content on Israel and Palestine – a gigantic and undisclosed conflict of interest. Many key U.S. newsroom staff were also formerly Israeli spies or intelligence agents, standing in stark contrast to journalists with pro-Palestine sentiments, who have been purged en masse since October 7, 2023.
This investigation is part of a series detailing Israel’s influence on American media. A previous report exposed the former Israeli spies and military intelligence officials working in U.S. newsrooms.
The fight for control over the Israel-Palestine narrative has been as intense as the war on the ground itself. U.S. media have been widely criticized for displaying a distinct bias towards the Israeli perspective. However, a new investigation from MintPress News reveals that not only is the press skewed in favor of Israel, but it is also written and produced by Israeli lobbyists themselves. This investigation unearths a network of hundreds of former members of the Israel lobby working at some of America’s most influential news organizations, helping to shape the public’s understanding of events in the Middle East. In the process, it helps whitewash Israeli crimes and manufacture consent for continued U.S. participation in what a wide range of international organizations have described as a genocide.
Advocacy to Journalism: Israel’s Influence at NBCUniversal
“Hi! My name is Kayla Steinberg…The summer before my first year of college, I attended the AIPAC New England Leadership Dinner and absolutely loved it. After going to Saban, I knew I had to get involved in [AIPAC] and go back to Israel…I dream of being a journalist someday, and I hope to write about Israel or Judaism. WIPAC and AIPAC have taught me so much about how important it is for the U.S. to be Israel’s greatest friend, and I know now why I am proudly pro-Israel.”
So wrote Kayla Steinberg in 2018, while she was working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, widely considered the centerpiece of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. AIPAC has been one of the most generous political donors this election cycle, doling out $100 million to hundreds of political candidates.
Steinberg did indeed become a journalist. Since 2022, she has been a producer at NBC News, pitching, scripting, producing and editing stories across NBCUniversal’s news channels, including MSNBC, CNBC and NBC News. Steinberg, who once stated publicly that “pro-Israel advocacy” was a key interest of hers, produced the NBC documentary, “Epidemic of Hate: Antisemitism in America,” which equated U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s criticism of AIPAC with the white supremacist marchers at the infamous Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, VA.
Steinberg is one of many former Israel lobbyists hired by NBCUniversal, a conglomerate that owns over a dozen channels, including CNBC, NBC News and MSNBC. Emma Goss, for instance, began her career in media by traveling to Israel to make a documentary for Write on For Israel. This Zionist group aims to educate young Jewish students to “make a difference on college campuses” by learning about Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in American universities.
While in college, she was a reporter for the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC). The ICC states its mission is to “inspire American college students to see Israel as a source of pride and empower them to stand up for Israel on campus” and to “unite the many pro-Israel organizations that operate on campuses across the United States” through coordination and sharing research and resources.
Even before graduating, Goss had already begun to work for MSNBC, helping to produce “Morning Joe,” one of their flagship news shows. She went on to work for NBCUniversal for four years, helping produce, pitch, research, edit and book guests for The Today Show, MSNBC and NBC Nightly News. In 2018, she left to work in local media and, as of 2023, works as a reporter at NBC Bay Area.
CNBC lead work reporter Gili Malinsky has an even closer relationship with Israel and its lobby. Until 2011, she was a commander in the Israeli Defense Forces, specifically in their public relations department. Malinsky (who has dual American and Israeli citizenship) led a unit dedicated to communicating the IDF’s story with the outside world, overseeing the military’s social media presence, as well as sending IDF officers abroad on public relations trips and organizing tours for foreign dignitaries to see the Israeli military in action.
In 2011, she moved seamlessly into working for Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF), becoming their marketing coordinator. FIDF is an American group that raises money for supplies and support for Israeli soldiers, as well as encouraging Americans to enlist in the Israeli military. Its stated goal is to “champion the courageous men and women of the IDF and care for their needs through transformational opportunities and support as they protect the State of Israel and her people.”
After working for the FIDF, Malinsky embarked upon a career in journalism, becoming a staff writer at CBS and contributing to The New York Times, Vice, The Daily Beast, NBC News and others. Since 2020, she has worked at CNBC. Although a business reporter, in the wake of the October 7 assault, Malinsky contributed to the network’s coverage of Israel-Palestine. For example, she co-wrote one article detailing the trauma suffered by the families of the Israeli festivalgoers killed by Hamas, a group she matter-of-factly identified as a terrorist organization.
Noga Even, an NBCUniversal manager, is also a former Israel lobbyist. Between 2017 and 2018, she worked for StandWithUs, a conservative group that coordinates closely with the Israeli government to push a pro-Israel message on campuses globally. StandWithUs’ mission statement notes that its purpose is to “support Israel and fight antisemitism around the world.” In 2017, she organized an IDF soldier speaking tour in Texas with the intent of “putting a human face” on the Israeli military. The soldiers in question told hundreds of high schoolers in attendance about the supposed “strict IDF moral code while fighting an enemy that hides behind its civilians.”
Even later went on to work for the Israeli Embassy in the United States before, in 2023, being hired by NBCUniversal.
CNBC’s markets and investing reporter Samantha Subin began her career working for various Israel lobby groups. In 2016, she interned at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Israel think tank created by the research director of AIPAC as a front group. One former AIPAC employee involved in its creation noted, “There was no question that WINEP was to be AIPAC’s cutout. It was funded by AIPAC donors, staffed by AIPAC employees, and located one door away, down the hall, from AIPAC Headquarters.” In their book, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt describe WINEP as a core part of the lobby, “funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda.”
Subin went on to work for the TAMID group, which describes itself as “seek[ing] to forge a strong connection to Israel for the next generation of business leaders.” While still at TAMID, she managed to get her foot in the door at CNBC, and has worked as a reporter there since 2021.
Another former TAMID employee working at CNBC is Benji Stawski. In 2016, Stawski co-founded a TAMID chapter at his local Bentley University. He later moved to CNN and, since 2022, has been an editor at CNBC.
For Israel and its lobby, having these sorts of advocates in newsrooms across America is a dream. With dozens—if not hundreds—of individuals fact-checking pro-Palestine arguments, booking pro-Israel guests, pitching stories that cast Israel in a positive light and its adversaries negatively, and weaving Zionist narratives into reporting, it’s no surprise that U.S. corporate media shows a pronounced bias in favor of Israel and its perspectives.
Older Americans who still rely on cable news and newspapers support the Israeli attack on its neighbors, while younger people who use social media as their primary source of information side with the Palestinians.
The connections to pro-Israel organizations extend to the leadership of NBCUniversal as well. Danny Bittker, the company’s vice president of production and operations, worked for many years for BBYO, eventually becoming its regional director. BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) is a group that sends young Jewish teens to Israel. It is far from a politically neutral body, however. A measure of this can be seen on its homepage, where visitors are currently greeted with a gigantic banner reading, “We Support Israel and Stand By Its Right to Defend Itself.”
Brandon Glantz, NBCUniversal’s senior director of global privacy operations, previously worked for Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world. Some at Hillel might object to being called part of the Zionist Lobby in America. Helpfully, then, on his own LinkedIn page, Glantz described his role at Hillel as “conduct[ing] all Israel advocacy on the University of Florida campus.”
Yelena Kutikova, a director and vice president of learning and development at NBCUniversal until May of this year, was previously a director for the United Jewish Appeal — Federation of New York. Kutikova worked for over three years at UJA-NY, a group that raises money to build illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine and coaches American politicians and pundits on how to best advocate for Israel. Earlier this year, leaked documents showed sessions convened by the UJA advised U.S. officials to spread highly questionable claims about mass rapes on October 7 as a way to deflect criticism away from Israel’s slaughter in Gaza.
Other former Israel lobbyists who have gone on to work for the network include longtime MSNBC producer Alana Heller, a former intern at AIPAC; Sara Bernstein, formerly of Hillel International, who went on to work for Paramount, the Discovery Channel and NBCUniversal; and Sarah Poss, a former intern at the Anti-Defamation League, who, since 2019, has worked in various roles at NBC News and MSNBC.
NBCUniversal does not appear to view these individuals’ backgrounds as conflicts of interest or red flags. In fact, their history of lobbying for Israel may be seen as an asset, especially given that MSNBC’s executive producer, Moshe Arenstein, was an IDF intelligence commander for many years. Arenstein joined MSNBC in 2003 and has since produced news on a broad range of political topics, including coverage of Israel and Palestine.
It seems likely that the enormous overlap between the Israel lobby and MSNBC at least played a part in the network’s decision to, in the wake of the October 7 attacks, suspend its only three Muslim anchors. MSNBC quietly and without explanation pulled Ayman Mohieddine, Ali Velshi and Mehdi Hasan from the air. Employees immediately understood this as a message to the rest of the staff. “The mood is very similar to what had happened post 9/11 with the whole you are either with us or against us argument,” one employee told Arab News. Hasan, a vocal critic of Israel, left the network and has never addressed speculation about his departure, only adding to the evidence that he was pushed out due to his political views.
Fox News and the Pro-Israel Pipeline
At the other end of the American elite political spectrum lies Fox News. And yet, on the issue of Israel, the network’s coverage has been markedly similar to MSNBC’s. Like MSNBC, Fox News employs a wide range of former Israeli lobbyists in key positions within its company.
Before becoming a journalist, Rachel Wolf worked for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA), a right-wing pressure group that tries to minimize or silence criticism of Israel in the press. While still at CAMERA, Wolf interned at the Zionist Organization of America, compiling dossiers on pro-Palestine figures and authoring memos full of talking points against anti-Zionist speakers appearing on campuses. She left CAMERA to work at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. and soon became a speechwriter for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, where she worked aiding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wolf then moved to Israel to join the IDF, where she served as a spokesperson for the military, producing press releases, running their social media campaigns, and developing, in her own words, “innovative” strategies to humanize the group. Only one year after leaving the IDF, she joined the “Hannity” program on Fox News and is now the company’s homepage and social media editor.
Wolf’s colleague at Fox News, Olivia Johnson, was formerly Director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), an organization that aims to build and strengthen the military bond between the United States and Israel. A recent JINSA report calls for the United States to support Israel in a war against Iran. After leaving JINSA, Johnson worked for CBS News and, since 2011, has been a broadcast associate at Fox.
Nicole Cooper worked for AIPAC between 2019 and 2020, helping to organize conferences and other events. Soon after leaving the lobby group, she was offered the executive assistant position to the Fox News network President.
Finally, Sarah Schornstein’s career has seen her run the gamut of pro-Israel groups, including seven months with AIPAC, an internship with Hillel and JINSA, and a position with CAMERA, where she, in her own words, was charged with “monitor[ing] any anti-Semitic/anti-Zionist activity on my campus” – a statement that suggests she sees the two as one and the same. In 2021, she also worked for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, where she policed NGOs being invited to the forum to ensure they do not “have a harmful impact on Israeli interests.” In 2022, she worked at the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, a group dedicated to promoting the normalization of Israel in the Arab world. Since 2021, she has been at Fox News, producing some of its most influential shows, including “Cavuto Live!”
Host Neil Cavuto regularly invites Israeli advocates and officials onto his show, throwing them softball questions and allowing them to present a pro-Israel narrative unchallenged. In October, for example, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon appeared on the show, claiming that his country was responding to Iranian aggression by launching “retaliatory” strikes against a rogue state.
CNN’s Israel Connections: Former IDF, Unit 8200, and Israel Lobbyists
CNN is widely considered among the most prestigious networks in broadcast journalism. And yet, like NBCUniversal and Fox, this study found large numbers of CNN employees with backgrounds in Israeli advocacy.
Jenny Friedland began her professional career at the American Jewish Committee, a strongly pro-Israel organization, which lists “defeating Boycott Divestment and Sanctions” as one of their primary goals and recently published an article headlined, “Five Reasons Why the Events in Gaza Are Not ‘Genocide.’” Friedland has been a producer for CNN since 2019, primarily for Fareed Zakaria’s show.
Another CNN producer, Hannah Rabinowitz, previously worked for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a group that purports to be an anti-racist organization but, in practice, often uses claims of anti-Semitism to shield Israel from criticism. A recent MintPress News investigation found that the ADL’s claims of a surge in Anti-Semitism across America were based upon labeling pro-Palestine marches as inherently anti-Semitic. ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt stated as much, going so far as to say that anti-Zionism was not just anti-Semitic but that it equates to “genocide.” Greenblatt explained that “Every Jewish person is a Zionist…it is fundamental to our existence.” This will undoubtedly be news to the large plurality of American Jews under 40, who, polls show, consider Israel to be a racist Apartheid state.
The ADL has, for decades, spied on progressive American groups, including the AFL-CIO, Greenpeace, the United Farmworkers, and a host of left-wing Jewish groups. It also secretly passed much of this research onto the Israeli government, whom the FBI, internal memos show, believe funded their activities.
CNN also employs an alarming number of former Israeli soldiers and spies. Among them is Ami Kaufman, a writer and producer of “Amanpour,” the network’s flagship news and global affairs show. Before working at CNN, Kaufman was a weapons specialist in the IDF, and between 2003 and 2004, worked for the CIA at their Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
Another CNN producer, Tamar Michaelis, previously served as an official spokesperson for the IDF.
Shachar Peled, meanwhile, spent three years as an officer in the Israeli military intelligence group Unit 8200, leading a team of analysts in surveillance and cyberwarfare. She also served as a technology analyst for the Israeli intelligence service, Shin Bet. In 2017, she was hired as a producer and writer by CNN and spent three years putting together segments for Zakaria and Amanpour’s shows. Google later hired her to become their Senior Media Specialist.
Unit 8200 is among the most notorious spying agencies in the world and is widely thought to be behind the recent Lebanon pager attack that injured thousands of civilians. It utilizes big data to create a digital dragnet on Palestinians and uses A.I. to determine the likelihood of individuals being members of Hamas or other proscribed organizations. The agency then uses this data to create gigantic kill lists of tens of thousands of people, which it used in its campaign against Gaza.
Unit 8200 alumni also went on to work closely with Israeli authorities in developing the infamous Pegasus spying software, created to spy on politicians, journalists and civil rights leaders the world over.
Tal Heinrich is another Unit 8200 agent turned journalist. In 2014, CNN hired her to be the field and desk producer for the network’s Jerusalem Bureau, where she oversaw its coverage of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza. Heinrich later left CNN and is now the official spokesperson of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A previous MintPress News investigation profiled Peled, Heinrich and other Israel ex-spies who work in America’s newsrooms.
And while never having worked for a lobby organization, Israeli-American CNN news producer Gili Ramen seems to act as an unofficial lobbyist, beseeching anyone with the chance to go on birthright tours and penning long “love letters” to Israel, detailing how she “fell in love” with her “magical” “homeland.”
Critics have claimed that CNN’s coverage of the attack on Gaza has been among the most biased and misleading anywhere to be seen, the network repeating Israeli talking points and ignoring Palestinian suffering. This has not gone unnoticed by ordinary Palestinians. Last year, a live CNN segment from Ramallah was broken up by angry demonstrators. “Fuck CNN! You are genocide supporters! You are not welcome here, genocide supporters” Fuck CNN!” one man told host Clarissa Ward before the live broadcast was cut.
From Birthright to Byline: Israel Ties Run Deep in America’s Newspaper of Record
Pro-Israel lobbyists are not confined to broadcast media; they are also present in print newsrooms nationwide, including at the United States’ most prestigious and influential publication, The New York Times.
Dalit Shalom, the Times’ director of product design, was formerly a guide for birthright trips – an Israeli government-funded program to gift free tours of Israel for young Jews in the hopes that they will settle there. He also worked for the Jewish Agency for Israel, an offshoot of the World Zionist Organization, whose mission statement is to “ensure that every Jewish person feels an unbreakable bond to one another and to Israel,” and encourages Jewish immigration to the country.
Before his career in journalism, Adam Rasgon, the Times’ correspondent in Jerusalem, interned at the Shalem Center, a now-defunct group founded in 1994 to “enrich and strengthen the State of Israel.” From there, he went to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Sofia Poznansky, a New York Times newsroom assistant, previously worked for Masa Israel Journey, an Israeli government-funded project to entice foreign Jewish people to the country. It works closely with lobby groups such as StandWithUs, the ADL and Hillel.
Before joining the New York Times as an editorial assistant, Rania Raskin worked for the Tivkah Fund, an organization dedicated to promoting Zionism among young Jewish Americans. Raskin aids top Times columnists such as Pamela Paul, David French, and Bret Stephens.
Since Raskin has been assisting Stephens, he has produced columns entitled “We Absolutely Need to Escalate in Iran,” “The Genocide Charge Against Israel Is a Moral Obscenity,” “Hezbollah is Everyone’s Problem,” “The Appalling Tactics of the ‘Free Palestine’ Movement,” “Abolish the U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency,” “The left is Dooming any Hope for a Palestinian State,” and “Hamas Bears the Blame for Every Death in this War.”
Of course, neither Stephens nor the Times needed Raskin’s assistance to promote an aggressively pro-Israel agenda. A study by MintPress News earlier this year analyzed coverage of the Yemeni Red Sea blockade by The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News. The study found that these outlets consistently maintained a pro-Israel perspective. This included frequently highlighting that Yemen’s Ansar Allah is Iranian-backed while not similarly noting U.S. support for Israel and portraying Yemen as the aggressor in the conflict.
From Lobbyist to Local News
While this investigation has concentrated on four outlets, the phenomenon of former Israel lobbyists producing America’s news is widespread across the corporate press.
For example, between 2010 and 2012, Beatrice Peterson was a delegate for AIPAC. She later became a producer for Politico and is currently a reporter and producer at ABC News.
In 2018, Erica Scott left her job as the ADL’s media and communications specialist to work at CBS This Morning. She is currently CBS News’ editorial producer.
Another current CBS News producer, Betsy Shuller, previously was a public relations associate for Hillel International. Shuller has also worked for CNN, ABC, and NBC.
In 2021, Oren Oppenheim left UChicago Hillel to join ABC News, where he is currently a political unit journalist.
Currently a technical project manager for The Washington Post, Lisa Jacobsen was previously the program director at the American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, a group pushing for more robust pro-Israel policies in the United States.
Eliyahu Kamisher was formerly an intern for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a research assistant at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies in Tel Aviv and is now a reporter at Bloomberg News.
In addition, this investigation found dozens of former Israel lobbyists working in local news across the United States.
Zionist Think Tank Publishes Blueprint for Resistance Victory
Switching Sides: The Newsroom to War Room Pipeline
Not only do pro-Israel partisans go to work in America’s newsrooms, but journalists also leave their jobs to work for the Israel lobby, creating a highly problematic revolving door between the two professions.
Benjamin Bell, for example, left a long and successful career in the media that included being deputy managing editor and politics coordinating producer for ABC News and the senior editor of features and planning at CNN+ to become the director of broadcast media at the Israeli Consulate General in New York.
Jake Novak’s career arc followed a similar trajectory. A former producer at CNN and senior producer at Fox Business, in 2021, he left his job as a columnist and political analyst at CNBC to become the media director of the Israeli Consulate in New York. The previous year, Novak wrote an article about the assassination of Iranian leader Qassem Soleimani entitled “America just took out the world’s no.1 bad guy.”
Originally an associate producer for CNN, where she wrote and produced content for leading shows such as “Amanpour,” Phoenix Berman left her job at CBS Philadelphia earlier this year to become an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League.
In 2008, Darren Mackoff ended a long career as a producer for Fox News and NBC News, taking up the position of senior communications manager and deputy press secretary for AIPAC.
The ADL’s social media strategist and director of sports engagement, Alex Freeman, also has a background in broadcast journalism. Freeman left his position as a writer and producer for Fox News to join the pro-Israel group.
Former CBS News, PBS and Fox News producer Anna Olson is currently serving as director of digital content for Hillel International.
Naveed Jamali, meanwhile, has jumped between journalism, the lobby and back again. A former intelligence analyst at MSNBC and contributor to The Daily Beast, between 2020 and 2022, he was the ADL’s Belfer Fellow. His ADL profile describes him as an “FBI asset.” Today, he is the executive producer and editor-at-large of the influential magazine Newsweek.
Jonathan Harounoff, currently a contributing writer to the New York Post, was, until recently, JINSA’s director of communications. He has just started a new job as an international spokesperson and senior communications advisor to the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations. Considering Israel’s actions and the U.N. response to them (the U.N. continues to vote to condemn Israel and demand a ceasefire), Harounoff is likely a busy man.
Censorship or Standards? The Cost of Pro-Palestine Advocacy
The ease with which hundreds of individuals can jump between the pro-Israel lobby and the newsroom stands in stark contrast to how journalists publicly (or even privately) advocating for Palestinian rights have been treated.
In 2021, the Associated Press fired news associate Emily Wilder after it was alleged that, while at college, she was a member of pro-Palestine groups, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine. The witch hunt against a young Jewish journalist was led and amplified by the likes of Fox News, who appeared to believe expressing support for Palestine robbed her of her credibility, even as the network, as this investigation has shown, employed multiple former members of Israel lobby groups.
Three years previously, CNN sacked contributor Marc Lamont Hill after he called for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” during an address he made to the United Nations. Unsurprisingly, pro-Israel groups were among those lobbying CNN the hardest to take action against what they deemed unacceptable speech.
The Hill, meanwhile, dismissed Katie Halper after she called Israel an Apartheid state on air. That so many of those fired for their positions on Israel have been Jewish is no coincidence. The Middle East has always been of particular concern to American Jews, and progressive, anti-Zionist Jewish groups are among the primary targets of the Israel lobby.
Halper’s exit set the tone at The Hill. And so when its host, Briahna Joy Gray (another strong critic of Israel’s attack on Gaza), was also dismissed earlier this year, it came as no surprise to her. “It finally happened. The Hill has fired me. There should be no doubt that [The Hill] has a clear pattern of suppressing speech — particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel,” she tweeted.
Gray’s departure was part of a broader post-October 7 trend, with newsrooms across the West cracking down on pro-Palestine sentiment being shared. In the wake of the Hamas assault, the BBC pulled six reporters from its Arabic news service off the air. Around the same time, The Guardian announced it would not renew the contract of one of its longest-serving cartoonists, Steve Bell. The newspaper had recently refused to print a cartoon satirizing Netanyahu and the attack on Gaza.
Across the Atlantic, The New York Times fired Palestinian photojournalist Hosam Salam over comments he made supporting factions resisting Israel.
Thus, while outlets across the board were rushing out editorials declaring their solidarity with Israel, even as it embarked on a rampage through Gaza, young, progressive journalists received the message loud and clear: this is no place for you.
A case in point is Malak Silmi, a Palestinian-American reporter who left the profession in disgust, filled with disillusionment at what she experienced. “I do not believe I can be valued as a journalist by a media industry that delegitimizes and demonizes Palestinian journalists and allows for reporting that incites and justifies attacks against them,” she wrote in January, explaining her decision to walk away from the industry.
Words Matter: How Newsrooms Shape the Narrative
Silmi’s comments are borne out by studies. More journalists were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza than in any other conflict over a similar period. Yet outlets such as the New York Times have shown little interest in Israel’s war on journalists, and when they do cover it, they rarely identify Israel as the culprit in their headlines.
A study of leading American outlets by media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting found that the word “brutal” was overwhelmingly used in reference to Palestinians and their actions and rarely used to describe Israel. These choices cue and prompt readers to feel one way about the conflict; they are brutes, and we are compassionate.
These sorts of discrepancies do not happen by accident. A leaked New York Times memo from last November revealed that company management explicitly instructed its reporters not to use words such as “genocide,” “slaughter,” and “ethnic cleansing” when discussing Israel’s actions. Times staff must refrain from using words like “refugee camp,” “occupied territory,” or even “Palestine” in their reporting, making it almost impossible to convey some of the most basic facts to their audience.
Likewise, CNN employees face similar pressure. Last October, new C.E.O. Mark Thompson sent out a memo to all staff instructing them to make sure that Hamas (and not Israel) is presented as responsible for the violence, that they must always use the moniker “Hamas-controlled” when discussing the Gaza Health Ministry and their civilian death figures, and barring them from any reporting of Hamas’ viewpoint, which its senior director of news standards and practices told staff was “not newsworthy” and amounted to “inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda.”
German media conglomerate Axel Springer, meanwhile, forces all of its employees to sign what amounts to a loyalty oath to support “the trans-Atlantic alliance and Israel.” Last year, the company fired a Lebanese employee who, through internal channels, questioned the requirement.
An outsized role in American politics
The Israel lobby played an outsized role in this year’s elections, spending over $100 million to promote Zionist candidates and relentlessly attack progressive critics of Israel. All 362 AIPAC-endorsed candidates won their races. “Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics,” AIPAC boasts.
To be sure, AIPAC only endorses candidates it believes have a good chance of winning to promote its image as a kingmaker in U.S. politics. But it has also played a significant part in suppressing progressive change in the country by successfully primarying critics of Israel, such as Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush. AIPAC spent over $30 million ousting the pair in two of the most expensive House primaries in history. “I want to thank our partners at AIPAC,” Bush’s opponent, Wesley Bell, said, adding that he was “not getting across the finish line without you.”
AIPAC also helps push reactionary and racist political ideas into American life, supporting one candidate who proposed a bill to deport Palestinians from the U.S.
This investigation does not accuse any of those noted above or claim they are unworthy of holding those positions and should be fired. But it does highlight the extent to which pro-Israel sentiment is considered so normal in elite circles, so much so that former Israel lobbyists, spies, and soldiers can be charged with producing supposedly objective and unbiased reporting, even on Middle Eastern issues.
And even as former employees of Israel lobby groups are hired en masse, those speaking out against Israel’s attacks on its neighbors, or even suspected of harboring pro-Palestine sympathies, are jettisoned from corporate media’s ranks. When it comes to Israel-Palestine, there exists a glaring double standard in our media. In our supposedly free and open system, you can hold any opinions you like, so long as they are pro-Israel.
The information presented here is likely common knowledge in newsrooms. And yet, it has been essentially ignored by the media, who seem to consider it unremarkable. This investigation is not claiming that people with pro-Israel views should be barred from working in the media. However, these backgrounds and blatant conflicts of interest should, at the very least, be disclosed, particularly when covering the ongoing violence in the Middle East.
Despite the commitment to truth, transparency and journalistic integrity often touted by the likes of the New York Times and other newsrooms across America, U.S. media have failed in their ability to provide the public with truthful reporting of the facts when it comes to Israel-Palestine. Their approach throws to the wind guidelines from organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists, which dictate that journalists “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived,” and “disclose unavoidable conflicts.”
Similarly, the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists outlines a newsroom’s “duty to disclose any affiliations that could affect coverage.” Instead, former lobbyists and figures with ties to pro-Israel groups are given free rein to shape narratives around the Middle East. No wonder that Americans’ understanding of the conflict, its history, and the stakes involved is so poor.
This lack of transparency is, in part, the reason for Americans’ fragile trust in the media—now at roughly 30%, according to recent polls. The revelation that much of our news is literally written and produced by former Israeli spies and lobbyists is not going to help that number improve.
Alan MacLeod
Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group and a Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
