The article entitled Double Standards and Distortion: How the NYT Misreports Sexual Violence in Israel/Palestine appears on FAIR website. It provides a critical reviews to media bias. The writer, Owen Schacht, is pursuing a degree in international relations and philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Schacht analyzes the media coverage of NYTimes.com (henceforth, NYT) on Hamas’s attack in Israel on October 7th. In the article, he summarizes his study findings.
From the very beginning, Schacht argues that NYT’s coverage of the violence of October 7th employed double standards and distorted facts, holding NYT’s coverage as largely deliberately misleading. Documented however, coverage later proved sophisticatedly fabricated, especially regarding the claim that “Hamas weaponized sexual violence on October 7” (12/28/2023) and that Hamas carried out “systematic and widespread” mass rape on October 7 (02/21/24). Such allegations and the like were repeatedly published and then officially institutionalized. Schacht asserts that such coverage was intentionally designed to justify the subsequent dehumanization - supported by Joe Biden as well as Kamala Harris through arms supplies - that resulted in the deaths and injuries of more than 140,000 Palestinians. The writer asserts that “news articles turned allegations into facts… well before any [international] investigations had been completed”.
The most comprehensive evidence, Schacht asserts, is the report issued on 05/17/2024 by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which examined crimes committed by both Palestinians and Israelis between October 7 and December 31, 2023. The Commission reported that:
The Commission identified patterns indicative of sexual violence in several locations and concluded that Israeli women were disproportionally subjected to these crimes… The Commission did not find credible evidence, however, that militants received orders to commit sexual violence and so it was unable to make conclusions on this issue… the Commission was also unable to verify reports of sexualized torture and genital mutilation. Additionally, the Commission found some specific allegations to be false, inaccurate or contradictory with other evidence or statements and discounted these from its assessment.
Through contrastive analysis, Schacht discusses the same theme in reverse. He analyzes how NYT covered Israeli-perpetrated sexual violence against Palestinians. He states that NYT’s coverage of Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians was rhetorically “prevaricated”, buried in the bottom or lacking emotional weight: “[NYT] almost always buries the news beneath sanitized headlines, using understated, clinical language—strikingly different from the definitive and evocative [style of] language they use for allegations of Palestinian violence”. In August 2024, however, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a report—entitled “Welcome to Hell”— stating that Palestinian detainees in Israel’s detention camps experience systemic abuses of all kinds, including sexual violence.
To provide backing statistical grounds of how NTY’s coverage is biased, Schacht submits that 6% of NYT’s articles claimed that both parties (Palestinians and Israelis) commit sexual violence against each other. In addition, 75% of NYT’s articles indicated that Palestinians perpetrated sexual violence against Israelis, while 19% of NYT’s articles stated the opposite.
By way of comparison, Schacht referred to several news stories from the Intercept (1/28/24, 2/28/24, 3/4/24) that revealed that NYT’s stories were based on “shaky foundations” and evidence; and relied on politicized narratives from Israeli officials and intelligence. When such narrations criticized and denied by the UN and some related-to-topic Israeli sources, NYT added the disclaimer “undercutting this account”.
Generally speaking, Schacht concludes that NYT adopts a double standard and distortion stance regarding reporting sexual violence in Israel/Palestine especially the October 7 attack conducted by Hamas. However, some subsidiary interrelated themes can also be outlined as follows:
- Hamas weaponized sexual violence (refuted);
- Israeli testimonies are fully accepted although there is no credible evidence (proven);
- The most comprehensive evidence the Israeli narratives are relying on is completely false (proven);
- NYT’s coverage is a lopsided one (proven);
- NYT’s coverage is consistently prevaricated (proven);
- NYT’s coverage is built upon shaky foundations (proven);
- Israeli Systemic sexual abuse and dehumanizing against Palestinians especially the detainees, is true (proven).
Recent analysis highlights that some Western media coverage of the events of October 7th has been misleading and deceptive, potentially justifying the extensive supply of weapons and ongoing international support for atrocities being perpetrated by the Zionist entity against civilians. The Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism (AOCE) underscores the need for reliable information from neutral sources, urging against the spread of falsehoods and disinformation. The AOCE also calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, alongside the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid. Additionally, it advocates the establishing of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.