One small thing to do today: Pressure mainstream media to cover the Gaza famine.
As we’ve covered here, The New York Times has been among the most egregious when it comes to promulgating right-wing Israeli propaganda about the ongoing genocide.
As James North reported in Mondoweiss last week, just days after publishing its first meaningful feature acknowledging famine in Gaza, the paper reversed course. Editors issued an equivocation to contextualize an image of a starving child, implying that “pre-existing health conditions” were to blame for his state.
There are lots of good rebuttals to this craven move. (Like this one about the eugenic point, from writer Nathan Robinson.) But both the instant public outcry and the initial (if wildly overdue) story suggest a shift. Outlets that have long been complicit in the genocide are now facing unavoidable facts.
One small thing we can do as readers is keep them pointed in that direction.
The FLOOD THE NEWSROOMS campaign, created by Writers Against the War on Gaza, has a clear aim: to “pressure mainstream media to cover the fact that Israel is starving Gazans, which should be headline news everywhere in the world.”
An easy-to-use landing page on the WAWOG website directs readers to a template email, pre-programmed with addresses at many major papers that have failed to cover Palestine accurately. You’ll find mastheads from The New York Times, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Globe and Mail, and more on the page. And can choose per your subscriptions which editors to write to.
I’ve excerpted some of the template letter below.
Dear X,
It is long past time to make the forced starvation of two million people in Gaza a front-page story. For more than a year, the Israeli Occupation Forces, supported by the United States, have imposed a complete siege on Gaza from air, land, and sea. They have blocked humanitarian aid from reaching a starving population while targeting water wells and desalination plants across the Strip. Palestinians are collapsing from hunger and thirst…
This email is not an appeal, it is a demand: Report truthfully on the Israeli-imposed starvation campaign in Gaza. Give this story the resources and space it deserves. Outline for your readers the perpetrators of this policy of mass death. Explain that between 25% and 90% of Gaza’s population, depending on the source and the estimate, has entered the “fifth stage” of malnutrition—the most critical and dangerous phase, which can cause irreversible organ damage. This means that even if food becomes available in the future, health cannot be restored.
As a leading English-language news platform, choosing to omit this story from the front pages of your publication implicates you in the mass deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, who are now entering their 22nd month of unrelenting attacks. Do your jobs.
Bugging your papers for accurate coverage is one small thing you can do today. Evergreen thanks to the organizers!
