David Robie also blogs at Café Pacific
From: Pacific Media Watch
Pacific media commentator and Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie has criticised New Zealand media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as “lopsided” in favour of Tel Aviv.
He said New Zealand media was too dependent on American and British news services, which were based in two of the countries most committed to Israel and in denial of the genocide that was happening.
New Zealand media were tending to treat the conflict as “just another war” instead of the reality of a “horrendous” series of massacres with a long-lasting impact on Western credibility and commitment to a global rules-based order.
- READ MORE: Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel accused of ‘AI-assisted genocide’ in Gaza
- Norman Finkelstein and Chris Hedges discuss Israel, Gaza and the West
- David Robie’s Earthwise interview on the Pacific
Dr Robie was interviewed on Plains FM 96.9 community radio by Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths.
Lois asked: “What is happening to Gaza now is a nightmare, very disturbing, or should be, and yet are we, the public, in New Zealand and other countries, are we getting the true picture from journalists?”
Dr Robie replied, “No, we are getting a very sanitised version through our media, particularly in New Zealand, less so in Australia, but it’s pretty bad there . . .”
He explained the reasons for his criticism.
Praise for AJ and TRT coverage
During the half-hour interview, Dr Robie praised television coverage of the “real war” by independent news services such as the Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Turkey-based TRT World News, which have had Arabic-speaking Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza throughout the six-month-old war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Al Jazeera this week with closure of the network’s operations in Israel — under the powers of a new law — because of its graphic and uncensored coverage from the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s attack “slanderous” and managing editor Mohamed Moawad said: “What we are doing is trying to give voice to the voiceless and try and make sure that the suffering of civilians on the ground is heard by the entire world.”
Almost 33,000 Palestinians and more than 75,000 others have been wounded as outrage grows globally following Israel’s strike and killing of seven aid workers in Gaza this week.
Dr Robie is the founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and is pioneering editor of Pacific Journalism Review.
Plains FM’s Earthwise talks to journalist David Robie. Video/Audio: Plains FM
Dr Robie – Meanwhile Hamas kepts rejecting peace plans, after peace plans…
You don’t remember the Oslo Accord then? Israel is a proven unreliable nation who do not keep their word so why would Hamas trust them now?
Bonnie – Yes, I do remember the Oslo Accord…and I do remember how it was broken by the PLO as well.
Hamas have offered peace to the zionists from day one. They just won’t let you child molesters keep raping and killing their kids. We human beings would prefer you stopped that.
Since day one, Mo? Would that be 7/10? What deranged crap.
Mohammed Khan – Driving Israelis into the sea, is not a peace offer…
Zionists are free to go home to the countries they came from to parasitize Palestine at any point. Funny how you zionists always complain about ‘driving into the sea’, when that’s exactly what you murderers did to Palestinians in the first Nakba.
Are you in a contest with Im right to see who can lie the most Nathan?.
Why do you support ( the war crime) of ethnic cleansing so much that you have to lie so badly ….
Tell us the one about people in Wellington having to stand in lines to get water again ,,, at least your dumb bullshit is not really offensive in that instance.
Zionism and telling lies seems to be inseparable ….
,,,” They lied about decapitated babies so that they could kill babies.
They lied about rape so that they could rape.
They lied about Hamas using civilians as human shields so that they could use civilians as human targets.
They lie about being victims so that they can victimize.”
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
“It’s so obvious what’s happening here. Painfully obvious. Poke-you-in-the-eyeballs obvious. But we’re still subjected to a western political-media class who keeps forcefully telling us that this blatant ethnic cleansing campaign is not what it looks like. Telling us that all this starvation and destruction and elimination of healthcare services and the way it directly places pressure on the Palestinians to leave their homeland is just a series of coincidences arising from Israel’s “war” of “defense”. That only by pure happenstance does it look exactly the same as the advancement of an agenda that Israelis have sought to advance for generations.
Well I personally am through with having my intelligence insulted, and I hope you are too. The sky is blue, a spade’s a spade, the emperor has no clothes, and Israel is conducting a very obvious ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza.” https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-savage-destruction-of-gazas?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
“He [Dr Robie] said New Zealand media was too dependent on American and British news services, which were based in two of the countries most committed to Israel….”
Stuff.co.nz uncritically republishes Associated Press who try to gaslight us.
Food charity halts Gaza operations after alleged Israeli strike kills 6 foreign aid workers
WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
April 02, 2024, • 09:45am
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350232867/food-charity-halts-gaza-operations-after-alleged-israeli-strike-kills-6
There was no “alleged” about it, three Israeli missiles struck and killed 7 World Centre Kitchen aid workers.
When you use the word alleged you usually have to say who alleged it.
So who claimed it was ‘alleged’? Israel, the US/UK, AP?
Nobody?
And the gaslighting continues;
from the text of the above AP report
“An apparent Israeli airstrike killed six international aid workers….”
An Israeli airstrike killed seven international aid workers, not ‘allegedly’ not ‘apparently’. They were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Casting shade
If you read the stuff.co. report to the end, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was unclear who fired the missiles that killed the 7 WCK aid workers.
Those killed include three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national and an American-Canadian dual citizen, according to hospital records.
The source of fire late Monday could not be independently confirmed. The Israeli military said it was conducting a review “to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
“Why Israel Slaughters Aid Workers – And How Media Outlets Covered It Up”
By Owen Jones;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXXVGj05oIk
@00:00 minutes
“Why is this crucial Smoking Gun evidence being disregarded?
This evidence, if the media was doing their job, should frame the entire discussion, all reporting about how the Israeli Army is operating in Gaza. Whether it be this week, the slaughter of seven aid workers, whether it be the Butchery of tens of thousands of Palestinians, or the wiping of much of Gaza off the face of the Earth, the famine now enveloping Gaza, IDF soldiers repeatedly posting their war crimes loudly and proudly, and triumphantly, celebrating the mass destruction of Gaza as comic fodder for public Amusement on the likes of Tik Tok. You name it, I could go on….”
If this doesn’t make you question mainstream media outlets – what will?
Please like, subscribe – and help us take on the pro-war media here: https://www.patreon.com/owenjones84