How Israeli propaganda shaped U.S. media coverage of the flotilla attack

How Israeli propaganda shaped U.S. media coverage of the flotilla attack

www.salon.com

They detained the journalists who were on the ship for days and seized their film, video and cameras. And worst of all, the IDF -- while still refusing to disclose the full, unedited, raw footage of the incident -- quickly released an extremely edited video of their commandos landing on the ship, which failed even to address, let alone refute, the claim of the passengers: that the Israelis were shooting at the ship before the commandos were on board.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.nytimes.com
www.economist.com
www.promisedlandblog.com
mideast.foreignpolicy.com

This is my first thread so I will try to add as much detail as possible. If something is wrong please pardon me.

It was clear from the moment news of the flotilla attack emerged that Israel was taking extreme steps to suppress all evidence about what happened other than its own official version. They detained the flotilla passengers and barred the media from speaking with them, thus, as The NYT put it, "refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel's version of events."

Someone has to ask why Israel refused to release the raw video and only released the heavily edited video. Why the media was barred from speaking to the witness?

The author of the article hits it right on the mark when he says

This campaign of suppression and propaganda worked to shape American media coverage (as state propaganda campaigns virtually always work on the gullible, authority-revering American media). The edited IDF video was shown over and over on American television without question or challenge. Israeli officials and Israel-devoted commentators appeared all over television -- almost always unaccompanied by any Turkish, Palestinian or Muslim critics of the raid -- to spout the Israeli version without opposition. Israel-centric pundits in America claimed, based on the edited IDF video, that anyone was lying who even reported on the statements of the passengers that Israeli fired first. In sum, that the Israelis used force only after the passengers attacked the commandos became Unquestioned Truth in American discourse.

But for how long could Israel suppress the truth. The activists who were detained are now being released and speaking about what atually happened on the fatefull day. How they were shot and barged on the ship.

The New York Times blogger Robert Mackey today commendably compiles that evidence -- I recommend it highly -- and he writes:

"now that the accounts of activists and journalists who were detained by Israel after the raid are starting to be heard, it is clear that their stories and that of the Israeli military do not match in many ways."

As Juan Cole says:

"Many passengers have now confirmed that they were fired on even before the commandos had boots on the deck. Presumably it is this suppressive fire that killed or wounded some passengers and which provoked an angry reaction and an attack on the commandos."

The author further adds,

this incident illustrates -- yet again -- the eagerness of the American media to "report" on events by doing nothing but mindlessly repeating official government claims. How many of the TV hosts who paraded Israeli officials in front of their audiences all week will put these witnesses on their shows to narrate their version of events? Devotees to Israel have already been convinced that this ship was full of Terrorists and Terrorist-lovers (meaning: anyone who opposes Israeli policy), so anything these passengers say (indeed, anyone who disputes the Israeli version of events) will be automatically dismissed as unreliable -- just as Muslim villagers who claim that the U.S. military kills civilians (rather than "militants") are, for that reason alone, deemed suspect, and just as individuals who denied reports about Iraqi WMDs before the war were deemed suspect for that reason alone.

Not only that but Mackey quotes Israeli journalist and blogger Noam Sheifaz:

Israel has confiscated some of the most important material for the investigation, namely the films, audio and photos taken by the passengers [and] journalists on board and the Mavi Marmara’s security cameras. Since yesterday, Israel has been editing these films and using them for its own PR campaign. In other words, Israel has already confiscated most of the evidence, held it from the world and tampered with it. No court in the world would [trust] it to be the one examining it.

Last but not the least:

Just as is true for the U.S. on so many occasions, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is interested only in propagandizing and obfuscating. The very idea that they can be trusted to reveal what actually happened is ludicrous on its face.

What is needed is an Independent foreign body take a look in this incident and Israel releasing all the unedited tapes but that's just wishful thinking. A very deep and though provoking article.

www.salon.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Here is a video related to the article

The US government was complicit in this attack, no doubt about that at all.
The parrotting of the Israeli line and version of events is, unfortunately, to be expected considering how many of the elected(?) representatives receive large "campaign donations" and are vetted for Israeli obedience before they even get to take office.
Having dual-nationals in high office also doesn't help matters, as it becomes glaringly obvious which master they serve - and it isn't the American people, the country or it's best interests that they serve.

The boarding of an American flagged vessel in International waters itself would be bad enough, but the roughing up and execution of American citizens, allowed and apologised for the their own president is sickening. Make no mistake, the killing of the American, a shot to the chest and 4 to the head, was an execution and can not be described as defensive fire to any rational mind.

Sad, but it's not the first time Israel has deliberately targeted Americans - the USS Liberty and the Lavon affair being two of the more high profile examples. Bottom line, Israel, due to it's infiltration of our governments, links to International banking families and bought and paid for politicians will never be held to account. I hope someday they are but will not hold my breath waiting.

I hope all the israel supporters from the first threads that came out proving the tapes were faked who still laughed at the OP saying they were nutjobs, anti-semites, and conspiracy theorists come back and apologize to them.

The majority of the population gets their info from the net, and has got emails, facebook messages and tweets about israel's abhorrent behavior and knows who the true terrorist state is.

The only problem is, this is exactly what the self fulfilling prophecy zionists want, they gave themselves israel even though they were supposed to wait for god to give it back, and now they are going to get the nations of the world to turn against them and build the 3rd temple, saying it is the Bible coming true.

The bible may merely be a book written by men who wanted to control the masses by fear and not force almost 2000 years ago, but currently there are men using as a script acting out the plays while people watch and see it as prophecy becoming true.

Or maybe they knew that people would abuse it's power and this is what they actual wrote about, thus making the Bible true, if it continues to be acted out by those in power.

Kinda a paradox huh?



[edit on 6-6-2010 by breakingdradles]

reply to post by YJLTG


Did you really expect anything different??

No investigation will help because Israel will NEVER release all the evidence, well atleaset not before they edit out all the stuff they dont like.

US media wouldn't show it anyway because. well we all know who owns the media.

US politicians will never condem Israel because we all know who owns them.

s&f for effort and lets hope alternative media is enough to wake the people....

reply to post by breakingdradles


Israel rolled out their campaign to influence the internet as well. I noticed how their was an army of pro-Israeli bloggers who went onto Facebook and became a fan of almost every political fan-page and group. They then started to post pro-Israeli messages pertaining to the event, with all of them linking to the same propaganda website. The message that started to appear on most FB fan-pages was:

Please read the truth flotillafacts.com...

This is not even mentioning their massive efforts to swarm message boards such as this one. The sad truth is, they descended, in force, onto the internet as well.

Israel is very good at this game. In fact, it is arguable that Israel is the best at the propaganda game. Israel is to propaganda as the US is to military might. They realized early on that whoever controls the media, all forms of media, controls the world. I believe they learned this lesson after WWI when the German people found about their collusion with the British to bring America into the war. Their lack of keeping that information under control, is what lead to the rise and dominance of the Nazi Party. Think about it, without being able to "fool" the world, they would never be able to get away with their ultimate agenda.

--airspoon

Star for you friend.

I was the one who wrote the JDIF thread. Jewish Internet Defense Force, Google it for those who don't know. Which is actually just one of many factions and software out there for israel supporters to download and sign up to to give them updates on where to attack.

I know all about their goals of controlling popular opinion by manipulating poles, mass commenting, creating mass propaganda content and flagging all content they don't' agree with across the internet.

One of our key members in that thread found a children's learning series they were trying to take off youtube, because it was in Arabic...

Reminds you a lot of them not letting baby formula, books, paper, pencils, toys, and many more items bound only for schools or children into Gaza.

However, I think these are all acts of desperation and want to be found and seen by us.

Otherwise why make it so public?

They are losing their grip, FAST, and they know it.

Every hundred or so years there is a mass extermination or expulsion of "the Jews" for many of the reasons people are so against zionism today.

And just like today, only a handful were actually guilty, they moved on to the next green pasture and left the others to be used as fodder and an excuse for whatever their next plan was.

Maybe another one is coming, who's to say it's the last and going to end the world though besides them and their book?

List of 109 expulsions throughout history starts at 2:10.

Mostly kicked out due to trying to enslave local population, mass inflation of goods prices once they bought out all the stores, trying to instill central bank systems or after robbing countries with a central bank ect.





[edit on 6-6-2010 by breakingdradles]

reply to post by breakingdradles


Are they???

I cant believe that somehow...

I cant believe Israel are silly enough to do what they have done without a reason...

There is more to this and Israel is the key...
I think they know what they are doing and we are playing into their hands.
If nothing else, they are good planners and patient....

The zionist have most the worlds politicans in their back pockets and control the press so in that enviroment they can just about get away with murder, silly me they have.

You all need some anti media

Originally posted by virgom129
reply to post by breakingdradles

 

Are they???

I cant believe that somehow...

I cant believe Israel are silly enough to do what they have done without a reason...

There is more to this and Israel is the key...
I think they know what they are doing and we are playing into their hands.
If nothing else, they are good planners and patient....

WTF, isn't that exactly what I said?

That this is israel's plan, they are self fulfilling prophecy and they need the nations of the world to turn against them next.

Killing international protesters in the West Bank, israel, and Gaza weren't enough though.

I think the worldwide MSM covered "freedom flotilla", and it's killings, helped "turn the nations of the world against them". Question is, what's next?

Something they could have easily avoided, if they wanted to.

Did I miss something?

I made it abundantly clear that I believe this is a calculated move by israel, as I believe most things this large are.

It seems to me like you agree with me, and that people who disagree with me didn't read your post and just stared it.



[edit on 6-6-2010 by breakingdradles]

Thank you all for replying, I think it would be pretty far fetcch to claim Israel controls the media but yes I agree that there is heavy influence of Israeli bias in the media.

Israel army admits the Audio of Mira ship was doctored

IDF Admits It Doctored the Audio Tapes

also link to IDF website - Clarification/Correction Regarding Audio Transmission Between Israeli Navy and Flotilla on 31 May 2010, Posted on 5 June 2010

Why the need to doctor and modify video and audio?

A comment I would like to share

When one must hide his actions, he knows he is doing wrong. When a country must use propaganda to shape the story we know that they have committed a monstrous act and that they know they have done this.

Israel has been using propaganda and shaping the news in the US for decades and our mainstream "old" media goes along with in each time. Only with the new internet media do we get to see real reporting on these issues. I wonder when the government will seek to "license" the internet media so as to control it.

Originally posted by YJLTG
Thank you all for replying, I think it would be pretty far fetcch to claim Israel controls the media but yes I agree that there is heavy influence of Israeli bias in the media.

Agreed, while there are those who say they "control" the MSM, most know it's usually nothing more than selective coverage.

Just like Netanyahoo's top aide said the other day, that this incident will blow over in a few days, they know the next story is on the way and this will be forgotten.

[edit on 6-6-2010 by breakingdradles]

reply to post by breakingdradles


Sorry mate, the mods removed a lot of your post. I just saw the end which was,

They are losing their grip, FAST, and they know it.


Glad we agree there is more to this situation...

cheers virgom

reply to post by YJLTG


Really? You dont think Israel controls the media?

Here ya go, 6 jewish companies control 96% of media.

www.jewwatch.com...

reply to post by virgom129


Youre telling me a site called JEW WATCH isnt full of antisemitism and propaganda?



get outa here with that

reply to post by virgom129


I do know about that my friend and read about it somewhere else but owning media and influencing it are two different things. Maybe it's due to fear or any such factors that MSM rarely reports anything about Israel without spin or Israel twists. If it would not be for individuals world would never know abut the reality of Israel.

[edit on 6-6-2010 by YJLTG]

reply to post by YJLTG


Hey, nice first post. As far as Israel controlling the media, I don't think they have absolute control over the media, as in writing or even editing the news. obviously, but most MSM outlets are run by pro-Zionists and lobbied hard by the pro-Israeli Lobby. Israel has a lot more influence than most people realize.

Take for instance this incident between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the then Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, although it is now disputed by the Israelis:


Source: www.mediamonitors.net...

Although not reported in this article, Sharon then added, "and the Americans know it".

Also, by Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation":

"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country"

"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."

Israel was also very successful at spinning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments to suggest that he called for Israel to be wiped off the map. This simply isn't true, he never said or even suggested such a thing. It is the biggest lie of the century and it is designed to push Israel's agenda forward, at the expense of the American people and the Western public.

What he did say:

Farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."

Translation: "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".

Word by word: Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad ( More..must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from).

Words not used: Israel, wiped off, wipe out, map, world, Earth, face.

The western phrase, 'wiped off' or 'wiped out', were not used in the quote, nor was the "state" of Israel. 'Nagsheh', the word for map was not there either.

"The Western media talks of me saying I would like to destroy a nation off the map. But Israel has already destroyed a nation. It is called Palestine" --Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Watch video of American MSM spinning Israel's lies about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments: www.liveleak.com...

--airspoon