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U.S. media outlets were crucial in helping Israel sell the Gaza genocide to the American public.

For his new book “How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza,” @ahjohnson.bsky.social wanted to demonstrate that U.S. media coverage of the war on Gaza was one-sided, racist, dehumanizing, and often veered into outright incitement.

@ahjohnson.bsky.social examined over 12,000 articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN[dot]com, Politico, Axios, USA Today, and The Associated Press, along with 5,000 TV segments that aired on CNN and MSNBC.

Today at The Intercept, we’re publishing seven statistical findings by @ahjohnson.bsky.social that prove the U.S. media’s bias against Palestinians. 🧵

The media’s penchant for invoking a nation’s “right to defend itself,” typically followed by the rationalization of mass civilian killing, was reserved almost exclusively for Israel. interc.pt/4tNXXQJ

Cable networks and print media outlets consistently applied a double standard in favor of Israel when using the terms “massacre,” “barbaric,” “savage,” and “slaughter” to describe the killing of civilians. interc.pt/4tNXXQJ

After the October 17 bombing of Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab hospital by Israel, media outlets almost uniformly adopted pro-Israel pressure groups’ pejorative qualifiers “Hamas-run” or “Hamas-controlled” to describe Palestinian death counts, thereby discrediting them. interc.pt/4tNXXQJ

Victims of Israel’s attack on Gaza who could be expected to elicit sympathy from audiences — like journalists and children — received little coverage during the first 100 days of Israel’s assault, compared to their counterparts in Ukraine. interc.pt/4tNXXQJ