In April 2024, mass graves were discovered in the Gaza Strip near in two large hospitals, which had been raided by the Israeli Defense Forces. Some bodies were missing limbs and others were bound with handcuffs. The UN has called for an inquiry. But don’t look to the Ottawa Citizen or National Post to tell you about what is really happening in Gaza. Read more…
Readers of the Ottawa Citizen, National Post and other PostMedia publications can’t help noticing its that the coverage of the Israel’s massive attack on Gaza has a distinct pro-Israel slant.
This is not an accident. In a letter to subscribers, NP’s Editor in Chief Rob Roberts recently announced what lies behind this. “I feel privileged to be editor-in-chief of the National Post right now, leading a paper that has been Zionist in its commentary since it was founded 25 years ago.”
In practical terms, this Zionist orientation translates into the selection of items to write about, the photos to highlight, the choice of words to use, or the sources to cite. Not only what gets covered, but what gets ignored.
Words matter. Israelis are “murdered”, while Palestinians “die”. Bombs “fall” without any mention of who dropped them. Reference to Hamas is routinely prefaced by “terrorist”, despite the obvious fact that since October 7th, the Israel military has sewn much more “terror” than anything Hamas could have done.
NP features pro-Israel/anti-Palestinian columnists like Terry Glavin and Tasha Keirridin. On the other hand, it is virtually impossible to get an op ed or even a letter critical of Israel in its pages. Its bias also extends to its policy toward paid advertising.
A recent attempt by OFIP to place an ad in the Ottawa Citizen about the Israeli policy of intentional starvation of Gaza, was rebuffed with the comment that the ad “does not meet our policy standards”. This way National Post makes itself a media arm of what is known as “The Israel lobby” and tries to subtly push readers toward a sympathy with Israel and a hostility toward Palestinians.
The advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) has pointed out that PostMedia papers often publish articles from JNS, a right-wing pro-Israel news site disguised as news wire stories across its chain. “Postmedia runs syndicated articles that are ‘basically a mouthpiece for the Israeli military,’ claim CJPME.
Post media not alone
National Post and its Ottawa Citizen affiliate are proud of their Zionism. Other important media outlets are more coy about their anti-Palestinian bias. “All the news that’s fit to print” is still on the masthead of the New York Times. But memos leaked by unhappy NYT staff have revealed the extent to which NYT promotes a pro-Zionist spin.
“New York Times instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian lands”, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept. “The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps”. According to the Intercept, the instruction to NYT reporters came from Times’ standards editor Susan Wessling and international editor Philip Pan.
Other options
Fortunately, other mainstream alternatives are available which provide a more balanced perspective than that provided by the Ottawa Citizen/National Post or the New York Times.
CBC’s TV and radio struggles to present “both sides”. In CTIP’s view, its coverage of the Israel/Palestine issue relies too much on journalists in Jerusalem, but it is head and shoulders above the National Post, reporting frequently from the West Bank. One measure of CBC’s balance is how much it is criticized by right wing pro Israel organizations like “Honest Reporting Canada”. Another is the unrelenting Conservative party attack on CBC for its “pro-Hamas bias”. CTIP could not find ANY comparable attacks on the National Post from these right wing sources.
The Toronto Star is also a lot fairer in its coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict. It does give lots of space to the Zionist perspective, but does not hesitate to report on the misery Israel is inflicting on Gaza. Its Editorial board has also called for a reversal of the Kuffieh ban at the Ontario legislature.
Outside of Canada, a number of publications including Ha’aretz, an Israeli daily, give a much more realistic view of both political and military developments inside Israel as well as in Gaza. Others that are reliable and well informed are the British publication “The Guardian”, and of course Aljazeera. Aljazeera runs parallel Arabic and English language sections. Many of Aljazeera’s English language reporters are from other western news media. Nonetheless, their critical assessment of Israeli actions has led Israel to expel Aljazeera from Israel last week. Israel has assassinated dozens of Aljazeera reporters, including Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank in May 2022.
Is it working?
Despite the efforts of the pro-Israel media like National Post and the New York Times to “shape” tne news, Canadian public opinion is slowly turning against Israel.
One of the reasons for this change is the growing importance of what is called “social media”, many of which use powerful short video clips rather than written text. They often show graphically Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza, its defiance of International law, and the open expressions of racism and hatred from its soldiers in the field routinely killing, torturing and humililating Palestinians. (see an example here – trigger warning – it is disgusting).
Of course, every information source has its own bias. Right wing, left wing, pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro Palestinian, anti-Palestinian, pro USA etc. Some (like the National Post) openly declare their bias, others keep their bias less obvious.
In a future post, CTIP will comment on the role of social media in the ideological struggle between Israel and the USA on the one hand, and global public opinion on the other and make some suggestions for sources of information and interesting commentary.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is the weekly newsletter of Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about Canada’s response to the complicated and emotional Israel/Palestine issue with a focus on the truth, clear analysis and human rights for all. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment.
Want to learn more about us? Go to Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine.ca
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Thanks for this, Peter. Disgusting, indeed! Once again, what can we do to oppose the zionist influence on the news media?
what to do? Circulate this post to others. Call your MP. We have little influence. but we do have some…
I see the effect of this on some of my friends and their opinions. Many people seem naïve to how much our mainstream media outlets spread propaganda serving the interests of the wealthy owners and connected lobbyists. Looking forward to your future suggestions for better sources of information and interesting commentary.
I rely on Ha’aretz, an Israeli daily, Al Jazeera, The Guardian from UK, and sometimes CNN. I never read CBC, NP NYT or Washington post if I want unbiased coverage.
Thanks for this Peter. I focus mostly on Al Jazeera and The Guardian. I listen to CBC radio and I have to say that of late their reporting seems to be somewhat more balanced. Yes social media does provide a strong counterweight to mainstream media. I recently saw a video clip showing racist comments that IDF soldiers had written ( in Hebrew) on the walls of the destroyed buildings they had bombed In Gaza. One has to wonder whether anti -Palestinian racism pervades Israeli society since the majority of Israelis must serve at least two years in the IDF.
Stephen, you do not have to “wonder whether anti-Palestinian racism pervades Israeli society”. It clearly does. In each of my three visits to work in Israeli educational institutions, I met “colleagues” whose statements made it clear that they did not consider Palestinians to be people. (To be fair, I also met some who clearly did see Palestinians as people). Often the lack of respect for their fellow humans who were not Jews, seemed subconscious – an unstated assumption. For example, justifying Israel’s expansion by taking land from Palestinians with, “People need places to live” without mentioning that this meant that Palestinians were losing places to live. At one institution that I visited, several Professors complained to me about one of their colleagues because he devoted too much time to helping a few Arab students (who were handicapped by their education in Arabic language schools) and was not equally attentive to other students who were having no trouble with the material. They considered helping Arab students to be a waste of time.
Last fall, the Israeli Ambassador to Canada kept stressing to CBC that the Jewish hostages in Gaza and their families were “real people” and had to be rescued. It never seemed to occur to him that the people being bombed in Gaza were also “real people”; they were unfortunate collateral damage.