St. Louis Television News Coverage Of The Israel/Palestine Conflict Is Unbalanced
By Michael Berg, Guest Contributor
It is instructive to observe our local media coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. A test case below is coverage from Iran’s firing missiles at Israel as a study.
1. Coverage is instigated by Jewish fear and pain – not by the fear and pain of Palestinians, the Lebanese, or anyone else affected.
Three week ago, Iran fired missiles into Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iranian aligned Hezbollah, as well as the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consulate and the Israeli assassination of the political leader of Hamas in the Iranian capital. Not a single Israeli Jew is known to have died in this attack. This is the event that prompted all three local St. Louis news stations to give a “St. Louisans react” style report on the conflict (KSDK Channel 5, KMOV Channel 4 and Fox 2 News).
These reports were made as Israel was invading Lebanon, after it terrorized the Lebanese population with an attack on personal electronic equipment and began bombing Lebanon. The Israeli military has now killed over 2,000 Lebanese people and has displaced over 1 million – 20% of the country. Despite the central importance of the Lebanese community to our region (Francis Slay, St. Louis’ longest serving mayor, is of Lebanese descent.), none of these events prompted a similar report.
Additionally, the report was made in the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip and its increasing pace of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank. Over 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza are verified to have been killed by the Israeli state, the majority women and children, with tens of thousands of injured people, a complete destruction of the infrastructure including all hospitals and universities, and widespread torture of Palestinian detainees including the use of rape. The real death toll is probably between 100,000 and 300,000 people, or nearly 10% of the population, with the entire population malnourished and most of the population displaced from their homes.
In comparison, 1706 Israelis have been killed by Hamas or Hezbollah in the last year, most of them on October 7, 2023.
There was one report in mid-October 2023, at the very beginning, dedicated to Palestinian fear and pain. As far as I can find, since then none of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza have prompted a “St. Louisans” react report:
It did not happen when Israel crossed Biden’s supposed “red line” and destroying the city of Rafah.
It did not happen in response to the campaign of the last few days where the Israeli military is forcing Palestinian civilians to evacuate northern Gaza and shooting at them as they try to comply with the orders.
Meanwhile, local television news stations have done “St. Louisans react”-style reports prompted by Jewish fear and pain three times just in the last month – in response to the death of six Israeli hostages, in response to the missile attacks, and in response to the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas led attack on southern Israel, with reports from multiple stations.
2. Coverage expresses a pro-Israel position and a Jewish perspective as the central theme of the story.
All three channels interviewed Jewish Federation of St. Louis, VP of Community Impact, Karen Sher. She delivered Israeli talking points as if she were a spokesperson for the Israeli government. On KMOV she said, “Israel is a sovereign state that has the right to defend itself. Iran and its proxies are not just against Israel but any democracies, including the United States. Israel fighting this war is really fighting this war on behalf of any one, any country that believes in democracy.”
This comment is nonsense – reminiscent of the words that came from George W. Bush’s lips to lead our country into the disastrous invasion of Iraq. The first sentence is a throwaway line delivered to justify every war crime that Israel commits:
Bombed and invaded a hospital? Israel has a right to defend itself.
Shot down an aid convoy delivering food to starving people? Israel has a right to defend itself.
Killed a five-year-old after killing her family then killed the paramedics who came to save the child’s life? Israel has a right to defend itself.
Israel bombed an Iranian consulate in Syria, killing many Iranians. Israel assassinated the political leader of Hamas in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Iran is a sovereign state. Does Iran have a right to defend itself? How would the United States or Israel react if another country blew up one of its consulates and assassinated a visiting politician inside of Washington DC or Tel Aviv?
The second and third sentences are divorced from reality. Iran gives support to Hamas, Hezbollah and Ansar Allah, but these groups are not proxies of Iran. They each have their own interests, agendas and leadership. Sher’s and others’ references to them as proxies of Iran is done as part of an intentional Israeli strategy to distract people from the reality of egregious injustices suffered by Palestinians. It appears to make it seem as any who oppose Israel are puppets of sinister paymasters in Tehran–similar to tactics used by US right-wing forces who dismissed all US leftists during the cold war as puppets of the Soviet Union.
More importantly, no competent analyst would say that Israel is fighting a war on behalf of democracy. The Israeli military is invading towns right now in both Gaza and the West Bank. Its military controls these places without allowing the millions of Palestinians inhabitants citizenship, a vote, the right to travel freely or other basic rights – this is why Amnesty International considers Israel an apartheid state. The State of Israel has explicitly stated that there will never be an independent Palestinian state within the territory it controls. Israel denies equal rights for most Palestinians under its control, and it will allow no separate Palestinian state. How is this democracy? Israel invaded Lebanon, which is a democracy. How can the actions of an apartheid state bombing and terrorizing citizens of a democracy be called “fighting on behalf of democracy”? Sher’s statement is truly Orwellian.
On Fox 2 Sher said “We just are so grateful for the support of the United States, for our country to be so steadfast in supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. Israel is resilient, and it’s strong, and it will persevere.” She again misuses the concept of self defense, and she thanks the United States. She might thank those watching for sending their tax dollars to a conflict most disagree with. She could thank the many American servicemen and women, most of whom are not Jewish, now placed in harm’s way by the US government due to the reckless actions of the Israeli government and our government “supporting Israel’s right to defend itself”.
3. Coverage frames the conflict almost exclusively about Jewish fear and pain, and describes it in detail. The fear and pain of those suffering greatly and dying in vastly greater numbers is not detailed, nor central to the coverage, if at all mentioned.
All three stations led their stories by having Jewish St. Louisans express the fear they and loved ones in Israel felt due to Iranian missiles. They all provide details about what it is like to experience a missile attack. All three mention what it is like to hear sirens. KMOV goes into great detail about what it is like to go into a shelter and wait out an attack. They allowed Jodi Bitton to give voice to the pain her mother-in-law in northern Israel feels from being displaced from her home by giving specific and concrete details – “Her windows were blown out completely. The screen door on her back patio, blown out!”.
All three reports placed the stories within the context of the coming Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Irrelevant to the geopolitical reasons as to why Iran sent the missiles when they did; it is of importance for the psychological state of Jews. It also corresponds with the framing of this conflict that the State of Israel wants to project. Instead of having people examine the actual events that led to the missile attack, the Israeli government wants to falsely present Iranian actions as motivated primarily by hostility towards Jews and the Jewish religion. This is part of a broader Israeli strategy to obfuscate the actual context of all hostility towards Israeli policy and genocide, and instead frame it all as instigated by hatred towards Jews.
While all three stations focused on the fear that Jews felt from these missiles that killed no Jews, the same day the Israeli military killed at least 51 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, an event not even mentioned. On KSDK Rabbi Jeffery Abraham, understandably worried about his brother and sister in Israel, “was really infuriated that this was happening. A direct attack on innocent people”. Meanwhile KSDK does not discuss how Israel was directly attacking and killing innocent people at the very same time they were airing the report. Unlike Israelis, humans in Gaza don’t have shelters they can enter when Israel bombs them, or any functioning hospitals to go to if they are injured.
I’m not dismissing the real fear and difficulty that Jeffery Abraham’s siblings and Jodi Bitton’s mother-in-law and others in Israel are feeling. It is terrible to not be able to return to one’s damaged home; her suffering is humanized. But no voice was given to millions of displaced Palestinians, most of whom fled homes that were destroyed far beyond repair?
Fox 2, to its credit, included voices critical of Israeli actions. Of the three stations, it was the only one to make any attempt whatsoever to balance its coverage. Palestinian history professor Steve Tamari and I interviewed with reporter Max Diekneite. He accurately presented my saying that the timing of the news coverage indicates that those making decisions on this issue for local news stations act as if “some people’s lives matter, and others don’t”. Tamari pointed out, on air, that “the United States could stop this in a moment”. Because of the inclusion of our viewpoints as a counterpoint to the main narrative, its coverage was less one-sided than the other two reports.
However, Fox 2’s story at its core had the same framing as the other two stations. Sher got the first and the last word. It led and focused on Jewish fear and pain and contained all the elements of all the stories described above. It included no details of the fear and pain suffered by Palestinians or the Lebanese – only Israelis and American Jews. It allowed Sher to voice talking points in support of the actions of a country that is enacting an ongoing genocide. My critique of the local coverage remains valid for Fox 2 and moreover for KMOV and KSDK – it is being done as if certain people’s lives matter and others’ lives do not.
Michael Berg is a member of St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace and the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee. He used to be a baker at with the Black Bear Bakery, which produced the world’s best food item, the chocolate oat bar.
