Prism

US media is evading its responsibility to acknowledge the Gaza genocide, writes @prismreports's Editorial Director @femmefeministe and Editor-at-large @tinamvasquez. Genocide has a clear and specific definition, and it is what we are witnessing in Palestine.

In this earth-shattering, history-defining moment, the American media is failing. Despite the reports from the ground over the last 19 days of bombing, many American news outlets refuse to identify what’s happening in Gaza as genocide, citing a lack of evidence for the term.

By uncritically repeating language from the Israeli Defense Forces and U.S. government briefs, and by framing the mass death of civilians as a side-effect of war between the State of Israel and Hamas, newsrooms continue to break the backbone of journalistic integrity and ignore Israel’s pattern of dehumanizing Palestinians. As @ccrjustice wrote in an emergency briefing, “no State or individual can ever be permitted to justify genocide in the name of self-defense.”

Addressing our media colleagues, Witt and Vasquez conclude with this call to action: “For those reporters on the fence about how to do their jobs, to editors who have tremendous power in shaping stories and influencing public opinion, for newsrooms obscuring the obvious in favor of the easy: Genocide is an evidence-based term, and it is here.”

Read the article using the link in bio or on prismreports.org.