Ever heard the old saying, ‘truth is optional’? That seems to be the motto over at PBS and other mainstream media outlets when covering the recent campus protests in favor of Palestinian cause. Their praise for the ‘courage’ and ‘consistency’ of these ‘pro-Palestinian’ protesters isn’t just a smack to the face for objectivity; it’s a punch in the gut for the truth they so often promise.
To really understand what’s happening here, let’s get a few facts straight. The ‘pro-Palestinian’ label given to the student protestors is as misleading as it gets. These students were fueling hate against Jewish citizens, endorsing terrorist-linked Hamas and even throwing around the term “genocide” for Israel’s defensive actions. What’s even more outrageous is that amidst their anti-Jewish tirades, the very networks sworn to deliver unbiased news were falling over themselves to defend these radicals under some twisted notion of ‘free speech.’
Free speech? For weeks up till May 23, these students used the freedom of American campuses across the country to peddle an agenda of destruction and violence against Jews and Israel. Yet, PBS couldn’t seem to get enough of them. As false as their claims were, the media’s distortion of their actions was worse. They stopped using the term ‘Hate Speech’ when it suited them, ignoring antisemitic chants and threats on campus and instead painting the protestors’ calls for divestment from Israel as a righteous cause.
Let’s remind you that divestment is part of the BDS movement’s discriminatory strategies and is widely accepted as a veiled way to dismantle Israel’s right to self-defense. But of course, that doesn’t bother our friends over at PBS. They persisted in promoting the protestors’ demands while conveniently forgetting to give a balanced account about the ‘divestment’ stick.
What’s more, they also barely mentioned the cold-blooded massacre of innocent Israelis on October 7, the calls for violence against Jews with praises for an ‘intifada’, and the infamous anti-Semitic chant ‘From The River to the Sea.’ They practically sugar-coated the whole scenario and left out key injustices, thus giving the protestors an unchallenged platform on which to spew venom against Israel. And yet, we are meant to believe that ‘truth is the cornerstone of democracy.’
In conclusion, what we witnessed wasn’t a fair representation of the situation at hand. The significant deviation from unbiased reporting goes against the very principles of journalistic integrity. And the sad truth is, if this is the quality of news coverage offered by a taxpayer-funded network, the public deserves better, and journalism deserves better.
