Imagine the reaction if Western media outlets participated in a campaign for Hamas to release the hostages in Gaza, which included suggested talking points, that was launched and coordinated in part by a pro-Israeli organisation in the UK: Let’s call it CAMERA-UK.
The outrage expressed in posts decrying the media’s subservience to the “pro-Israel lobby” would trend on X, and newspaper editors who didn’t join the call to highlight the suffering of emaciated and tortured Israeli civilians in Hamas’s dungeons would emphatically denounce those outlets who did sign up for the ‘hasbara’ campaign.
Of course, CAMERA UK strives to hold outlets accountable to their own editorial standards of accuracy. We certainly do NOT engage in campaigns to tell outlets what they should publish, and which humanitarian campaigns they should enlist in.
Well, today, the Guardian and Independent were among the British publications self-conscripting to a political campaign, coordinated in part by the political, pro-BDS NGO Avaaz, to libel Israel as a state which intentionally murders journalists. Avaaz’s partner NGO in this campaign is Reporters Without Borders.