#usatoday

It matters what words you use to describe an action. The word you choose tells the reader context clues about what is an acceptable action and what is not. It influences viewpoints about what you are reporting on. Using words and phrases like "barrage" and "swarm of munitions" while painting Israel's actions as a simple "response" without context is a gross manipulation tactic.

It is a gross manipulation tactic to paint the actions of "Israel, the U.S. and other regional and Western allies" as this heroic and epic fantasy where they "joined forces" and "blasted" enemy fire "out of the sky" after they were "fired at Israel." Why did they fire at Israel? Go on, you reported on it. Despite the fact that this linked article features the same shameful use of deliberate word choices to manipulate your readers, you even quoted the Iranian ambassador Hossein Akbari saying that the Iranian response would be "the same magnitude and harshness." Is that not what the terrible "barrage" of missiles and drones fired over the weekend was? Surely, you will bring this up in the article.

"The attack was itself an act of retaliation..." Great, we are going to mention that Israel attacked Iran first. "... after Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khameni, blamed Israel for an airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria." What the fuck. Not only do you then continue on to diminish the lives lost in that airstrike using word choices like "killed several people" and then highlighting one's military connections. It is a blatant manipulation tactic to frame Israel's attack as retaliatory due to an accusation of violence that only "killed several people." Fuck you for diminishing the lives of those in the Middle East living this fucking war/nightmare. Fuck you.

And then, to add insult to injury, you use more inflammatory language to associate Palestinians with a "militant group" called Hamas that "rampaged across southern Israel on Oct. 7." Is Hamas a part of local authority in Gaza? Yes. But painting Palestinians in broad brush strokes with that tone and word association is extremely dangerous and damaging. It's almost similar to how Israeli propaganda speaks about Palestinians...

You then discredit any reporting about the "self defense" that Israel has visited on Gaza and Palestine in the 6 months since October. You do this by stating that the shocking idea of "30,000 Palestinian deaths" (which has already been reported on by far more reputable news sources... though they have their own faults) is the reported deaths by the "Hamas-run Gaza health ministry." Since you have already done the job of describing Hamas as a "militant group" that "rampages" across Israel, do you think that associating the most reliable death count with the "enemy" isn't a disgusting manipulation tactic that belittles and diminishes the very real genocide happening against the Palestinians? Caused by their occupier, Israel?

You aren't news or journalism like you frame yourself to be through your website layout, articles, and tv shows. You are propaganda, bought and paid for by the Israeli occupation. You are on the wrong side of history.

I hope that you and the Western media that have used similar tactics are used in future journalism classes at universities and colleges around the world. I hope you are used as an example of terrible, bad reporting informed only by biases and internal memos telling you what to say. I am disgusted.

Fuck Israel. Fuck the IOF. Fuck Western media.