Today I am excited to talk with journalist and media critic Adam Johnson about his new book, How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. Many of us gained an intuitive sense of just how bad the media coverage of the genocide in Gaza and beyond was—not just in the right wing media, but also in the center-left media. Adam Johnson scoured thousands of stories, articles, news programs, cable shows, and social media posts to not only confirm our worst suspicions, but also, and critically, to fit them into a analytic framework to show the myriad tactics, rhetorical strategies, and instances of journalistic malpractice that not only sold a genocide, but also facilitated it. We talk about how the media whitewashed Israeli lies, erased Palestinian voices, and contrived a way to make a political settlement seem impossible, and war crimes not only acceptable, but also inevitable. We end by showing how these practices created a template that we see applied today in the coverage of the US/Israeli war on Iran. This is must-listening for those who want to fight genocide and crimes against humanity.
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in The Nation, In These Times, The Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
