Scholar exposes Western media's Gaza slant through 'fixed' headlines

On April 2, The New York Times published an article with the headline "Founder of World Central Kitchen says several workers killed in Gaza airstrike." Assal Rad, an author and scholar specialising in Modern Middle Eastern history, "fixed" the noticeably passive headline, changing it to "Israel kills World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza airstrike."

And when the Reuters news agency published a news story headlined "Destruction, lawlessness and red tape hobble aid as Gazans go hungry", Rad changed the headline to "Israel's destruction and red tape hobble aid to starve Palestinians."

In a similar case, when CNN headline on March 14 screamed, "At least 20 people killed, dozens wounded in shelling while waiting for food aid, Gaza health ministry says," Rad "fixed" it to read: "At least 20 people killed by Israel, dozens wounded in shelling while waiting for food aid as Israel continues to attack starving Palestinians in Gaza."

Ever since Israel's carnage in Gaza that began last October, Rad has taken it upon herself to scrutinise and "rectify" major Western media headlines.

"When you've studied the Middle East, especially its history, you are trained to see the way Orientalism has shaped and continues to influence the way the region, as well as its people and politics, are understood in the West," Rad toldTRT World.

Rad, who holds a Ph.D in Modern Middle Eastern history, says the problematic headlines often either sanitise Israel's actions in besieged Gaza or portray the situation as passively as possible.

"I wanted to challenge those narratives, especially in the area of news media, which is where much of the public gets its information about world affairs," she added.

Rad has been posting "corrected" media headlines on X — formerly known as Twitter — with many of them going viral.

Her posts on X, she said, aim to expose Israeli war crimes in Gaza and highlight Western media bias and complicity in the genocide.

"In the case of Israel's most recent war on Gaza, there is a tendency to whitewash Israel's crimes and evade responsibility for the horrors Palestinians in Gaza have endured," she told TRT World.

Misleading framing

Many Western news outlets have been found uncritically adopting the Israeli narrative, neglecting fundamental principles of research and journalism, which Rad said comes from the "complicity" of Western countries itself.

"On the other hand, there's the issue of Western complicity itself, not only the complicity of Western countries that continue to support Israel and flout international law but also the complicity of its media in protecting Israel and its allies from public scrutiny," she said.

"Polling in the US often shows that the general public is ignorant of the facts on the ground, and that is a direct result of the media's misleading framing and narrative."

News outlets like CNN and BBC have come under heavy fire for their "pro-Israel" coverage, so much that their own staff have spoken about the journalism "malpractices".

According to accounts from six CNN staffers and more than a dozen internal memos and emails obtained by The Guardian, the US broadcaster's policies led to a "regurgitation of Israeli propaganda and the censoring of Palestinian perspectives."

And according to a report by The Times newspaper, journalists at BBC were left crying in bathrooms because of the broadcaster's biased coverage of the war. BBC was accused by its own journalists of being "too lenient" on Israel and "dehumanising" Palestinians, the paper reported.

"The public can't be blamed when the people responsible for informing them of the truth intentionally use partisan language," Rad said.

While she didn't anticipate her posts reaching such a wide audience, she's pleased they've garnered attention, potentially prompting reflection on double standards.

"I am happy to see they've reached a wide audience that may see double standards and curated Western narratives on the region," Rad remarked.

Highlighting the pervasive bias in Western media language regarding Israel and Palestine, Rad said she aims to present a more comprehensive view to Western audiences.

"In that sense, I hope to bring attention to the Palestinian issue and the state of the debate in the West."