Media's Genocide Inciters Better Prepare for Nuremberg 2.0
Just as Nazi media propagandists were tried and punished for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, corporate propagandists like Dana Bash could face a similar reckoning for inciting atrocities.
As the genocide against the Palestinians rages on, fully supported by the majority of Western nations and corporate media, we must remember the vile lies and propaganda perpetuated by supposed "journalists" like Dana Bash. Their words, cloaked in a veneer of respectability, serve to dehumanize the victims and justify the unspeakable crimes committed against them.
"At least you don't see Israeli soldiers raping," Bash infamously stated when comparing IDF soldiers to the Palestinian resistance, ignoring the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, tortured and systematically raped by Israelis over the course of almost a century. This insidious remark not only dismisses the staggering loss of life but also reinforces the dehumanization of Palestinians – a necessary step in enabling genocide, according to international law.
Atrocity Propaganda
Bash's statement is a blatant lie, a shameless piece of atrocity propaganda designed to paint Palestinians as subhuman monsters deserving of violence. In reality, it is the Israeli military that has systematically used rape as a weapon of war (one they seem to intensely enjoy), with countless documented cases of Palestinian detainees, including many children, being subjected to this crime. Yet, the Western corporate media remains silent on these atrocities, instead amplifying fabricated tales of "beheaded babies" and "mass rape" by Palestinian resistance groups, for which not a single shred of evidence has been found.
This "accusation in the mirror" tactic, as former UN official Craig Mokhiber explains, is a hallmark of genocide enablers throughout history. By falsely accusing the victim of the very crimes perpetrated against them, the perpetrators seek to justify their actions as "self-defense" – a legal fallacy, as Israel has no right to "self-defense" in the territories it illegally occupies.
I have written about it many times before, colonizers, and the West in particular (including Israel), are masters at reversing reality. Victims are turned into barbarians and savages, while the perpetrator is steeped in 'white innocence'. Hence, Arabs are terrorists, Russians are imperialists, Chinese are warmongers, and Haitians are criminals. Yet, when looking at the facts, no group of people in human history has consistently slaughtered so many hundreds of millions of people around the world than the so-called ‘civilized’ ‘Christian’ ‘white’ Westerner. Don’t believe me? Look here, or here, or here, or here, or here, and here.
The Corporate Media Enables Genocide
Mokhiber rightly argues that these media personalities are not merely negligent but knowingly complicit in the genocide. They are aware of the realities on the ground, yet they choose to obscure and misrepresent them, manufacturing consent for Israel's war crimes through disinformation, dehumanization, and incitement of violence.
Lest we forget, there is a direct nexus between the lies peddled by the likes of Bash (e.g., Jake Tapper), and the bloodshed on the ground. These falsehoods shape public opinion, influence policymakers, and embolden the dual U.S.-Israeli nationals who participate in the murder, rape and torture of innocent people. As Mokhiber states:
"The role that the media is playing is not academic; it is actually playing a role in manufacturing consent for what's happening in Palestine.”
Activist interrupts CNN Reporter Dana Bash.
The parallels with history are damning. Just as Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer incited genocide against European Jews, and Rwandan media outlets like Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines fueled the slaughter of Tutsis, today's corporate media is guilty of the same incendiary role in enabling the genocide against Palestinians through its relentless propaganda.
They are modern-day megaphones of hate, spreading disinformation and dehumanizing rhetoric that lays the groundwork for mass violence. Their lies about "beheaded babies" and fabricated atrocities by Palestinians serve the same purpose as the blood libels and race hatred spewed by their historic predecessors.
Slandering the Righteous
Beyond just enabling genocide through propagandistic rhetoric, media figures like Dana Bash may also open themselves up to civil liability for slander against the very academics, activists and human rights advocates working to expose these injustices and atrocities.
A particularly insidious slander employed by Dana Bash and like-minded media figures is the baseless accusation of antisemitism leveled at pro-Palestinian academics, activists and human rights advocates. By cynically deploying this malicious smear, they seek to not only defame and discredit those voices exposing uncomfortable truths about Israeli state violence, but also to erase the well-documented reality of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism - the discriminatory ideologies and policies directed at the Palestinian people. This yet another reprehensible inversion of the truth represents a potential legal liability for Bash and her ilk through claims of defamation and slander. Falsely maligning scholars and campaigners as antisemitic bigots when their only "crime" is standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people could make Bash and her employers subject to costly lawsuits.
The dishonest weaponization of antisemitism allegations reveals just how far these media enablers of Palestinian oppression are willing to go to silence dissent and bury facts inconvenient to their agenda. But such slanders come with their own legal risks - ones that the victims may eventually choose to capitalize on by demanding accountability in court.
Make No Mistake, Nuremberg Trials 2.0 Are Coming
Just as Streicher and his ilk were tried and punished for crimes against humanity after Nuremberg, and Rwandan media personalities faced prosecution for genocide, today's corporate genocide enablers must be held to the same standard of accountability. Their suits and sanitized studios offer no more excuse than Streicher's printing presses. Incitement is incitement, regardless of the medium. To treat them as anything less than complicit perpetrators is to be willfully blind to the crimson trail they have blazed.
Moreover, the enablers of genocide now extend beyond traditional media to the algorithmic biases created by platforms like YouTube, Facebook/Meta, and X/Twitter. Facebook, for example, has been shown to have contributed to the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, and violence against German refugees amongst other things. These algorithms prioritize inflammatory content that dehumanizes Palestinians, amplifying the reach of genocidal propaganda to unprecedented levels. Genocide in the 21st century has adopted a potent digital dimension that must be accounted for and challenged with the same vigilance as conventional media.
We Must Never Forget
We must never forget the lies and the liars who enabled this genocide. When the day of reckoning comes, and the perpetrators face the inevitable trials, the Bashes of the world must be held accountable for their role in these crimes against humanity. Their words were not mere "bad journalism" but active incitement to violence and genocide, cloaked in the thin veil of "respectable" media.
As we continue to bear witness to the unspeakable horrors being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, Dana Bash and her propagandist ilk would be wise to heed the chilling words of Navanethem Pillay, the renowned judge from the Rwandan genocide tribunals. When sentencing the notorious radio host and historian Ferdinand Nahimana for his role in inciting Rwanda's genocide, Pillay issued this damning condemnation:
“You were fully aware of the power of words, and you used the radio – the medium of communication with the widest public reach – to disseminate hatred and violence….Without a firearm, machete or any physical weapon, you caused the death of thousands of innocent civilians.”
The haunting parallels between Nahimana's genocide-inciting media propaganda and Bash's current weaponization of rhetoric to demonize Palestinians should chill her to the core. Just as Nahimana's lies fanned the flames of genocidal butchery in Rwanda, so too could Bash's continual dehumanization of Palestinians metastasize into unimaginable violence if left unchecked. She has been warned.
- Karim
The perpetrators and their backers genuinely believe themselves to be a law unto themselves beholden to no one. They also believe that among the wide sweep of the globe they stand as a special people above all others. This is an unfortunate and unsavoury feature of the United States and other nations supporting the multitudinous crimes of the last many decades.
So Israel and its Western backers can today excuse all crimes and can use any and all justifications to ensure their dominance continues unabated. Even if they were to initiate a nuclear war, they and the media together would justify hundreds of millions dead with the foolish nonsense and lies with which they would pollute and poison all communications.
They know no boundaries and will respond to none. To know the truth, flip whatever they say backwards. In their reverse calculus, victim and perpetrator are inverted to bolster support for genocidal maniacs and eliminate sympathy for any and all innocents who are slaughtered.
They also truly believe that it is impossible to hold them responsible in a Nuremberg style reckoning, because they invent and enforce their own rule of law that allows them to inflict their reverse calculus on others. Let us hope they are in for a rude awakening in this regard.
She is fully aware. They are all fully aware.
The courage of those that went in-person to confront her - via the video posted - I realize it takes more than what it even appears to take. May we all grow in courage.