Americans seeking truth about Israel and the Middle East can rarely find it in our traditional media. This point has been proven by a recent raft of media reports based on outright lies, cover-ups, twisted fantasies and blatant attacks on Israel.
Our legacy media have fallen to disgraceful depths. They no longer represent the truth but promote a false narrative that strongly conforms to progressive ideology to promote leftist and other anti-Israel causes.
Here are seven of the most scandalous stories hidden, mangled or openly perverted by mainstream outlets in recent weeks:
1. “60 Minutes” inserts fake Kamala Harris answer into her interview. The CBS program asked the vice president if the United States had any influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Harris’s first confused, “word salad” answer aired briefly but was quickly replaced. CBS inserted her shorter answer to a different question.
Since the fake answer was exposed, CBS has refused to publish a full transcript of the interview, as it commonly does. The Trump campaign accused CBS of making the edit to manipulate the election. What other reason could CBS have for falsifying the interview and refusing to release Harris’s real words?
2. “The New York Times” idolizes terrorist mastermind Nasrallah. Following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the Times eulogized the terrorist leader as if he were a hero—calling him a “powerful orator, beloved by Shi’ite Muslims,” crediting him with helping to “provide social services for Lebanon,” and, fantastically, trying to sell the lie that he wanted “one Palestine, with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians.”
The Times even had the audacity to call Israel’s assassination of Nasrallah an “escalation” of the war Hezbollah started on Oct. 8, 2023.
The truth: Nasrallah was a murderous terrorist responsible for killing countless Americans, Lebanese, Syrians and Israelis. The Times’ portrayal of him as a hero only attempts to delegitimize Israel’s fight against Iran and its terrorist partners.
3. “CBS” makes a bloodthirsty anti-Israel rally in Dearborn, Mich., sound like a picnic. On Sept. 25, a “Stand with Lebanon” demonstration featured antisemitic screams of “Death to Israel” and cheers to fake reports that Hezbollah was invading Israel. CBS, however, portrayed the gathering as a wholesome, civil demonstration in support of Lebanon.
One of the speakers, Osama Siblani, said, “To Netanyahu … we are going to take you back to Poland.” Who was CBS serving when it decided to omit any mention of the rally’s hateful, antisemitic rhetoric?
4. “Bloomberg” portrays Israel as the aggressor against Iran. After Iran recently attacked Israel with 180 ballistic missiles, Bloomberg’s headline claimed, “Iran pushed into missile fire by sustained Israel escalation.” Suggesting that Israel was responsible for escalating hostilities with belligerent Iran is, obviously, an absurd falsehood.
Iran began hostilities against Israel when its proxy Hamas massacred more than 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200 more on Oct. 7. Iran-sponsored Hezbollah then escalated the fight by attacking Israel a day later. Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen soon followed suit. Iran ramped up hostilities further by launching more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel in April. Iran’s latest missile attack clearly represented a further escalation against Israel. Ask yourself: Why would Bloomberg represent Israel as the aggressor when it is defending itself?
5. “CBS” reprimands its journalist for challenging antisemitic lies. On Sept. 30, CBS’s Tony Dokoupil interviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book “The Message,” in which he unfairly condemns Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Dokoupil asked the author tough questions like, “Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?”
Some CBS staffers reacted angrily to the interviewer’s treatment of Coates. As a result, Dokoupil was upbraided by top executives, who said that his interview didn’t meet the network’s editorial standards. Dokoupil was essentially punished for offending the woke sensitivities of CBS’s staff by deviating from the network’s anti-Israel narrative and asking hard questions, as all good journalists should do.
Who and what cause are CBS supporting when they criticize the truth in favor of a biased anti-Israel screed?
6. “The New York Times” features a bogus report asserting the IDF targets children. On Oct. 9, the Times published an article accusing Israel of purposely shooting Gazan children in the head, using testimonials and x-rays to support the outrageous accusation.
But at least two ballistics experts, including a former U.S. Special Forces member, and one radiologist explained why the X-rays had to be falsified. The author of the Times article, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, also happens to deny that Hamas uses human shields so as to actually increase civilian casualties. Furthermore, the medical professionals who supported Sidhwa’s X-ray evidence belong to the discredited Palestinian American Medical Association (PAMA), which historically publishes misinformation about the Gaza war.
As yet, the Times has made no effort to defend the forensic inconsistencies of its X-rays or its sources’ testimonials. The Times knows Israel doesn’t target civilians, let alone children. What are they trying to prove?
7. “NPR” reports on Gaza hospitals without mentioning Hamas is occupying them. National Public Radio’s reports parrot Hamas’s bogus casualty figures and make no mention of Hamas using Gaza hospitals as headquarters and arms depots. NPR also neglects to mention that its Gaza correspondents are under heavy pressure from Hamas not to expose the terrorists’ use of hospitals as shields for their military operations. Why would NPR protect Hamas and impugn Israel, which never attacks hospitals without a military target inside them?
The media’s motive for their constant Israel-bashing is to promote a progressive ideological agenda. According to a 2024 AllSides media survey, the overwhelming majority of mainstream media lean left politically. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of legacy media audiences describe themselves as Democrats or leaning Democratic.
When it comes to Israel, the media understand that progressive audiences strongly favor narratives about allegedly downtrodden people—the Palestinians—struggling for freedom from a supposedly despotic regime—Israel. Despite the abject falseness of this narrative, left-leaning media loyally promote it, thus supporting policies that limit Israel’s efforts to defeat its enemies.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).