This article is a blatant example of the type of biased reporting about protests that we strongly oppose. Before Palestinian advocates are allowed to provide their motivations for a protest or blockade, media outlets mention how CIJA and other pro-Israel lobby groups feel about these protests.
Poor coverage - Media outlet to be critiqued
A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:
Title of Piece: Jesse Feith: "Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block Bronfman Building at McGill University"
Media Outlet: Montreal Gazette
Click here to access the piece on-line. If the article is behind a media paywall, click here to view the article in .pdf format.
Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:
(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):
This article is a blatant example of the type of biased reporting about protests that we strongly oppose. Before Palestinian advocates are allowed to provide their motivations for a protest or blockade, media outlets mention how CIJA and other pro-Israel lobby groups feel about these protests. A reader can’t understand why a group is protesting until they are adequately inundated with pro-Israel propaganda that dismisses mobilization for Palestine as “antisemitic.” Please send a letter to the author and editor at Montreal Gazette in strong opposition to this biased, unfair reporting.
Any one of the points below could serve as the basis for a quick response to the Montreal Gazette. Please take a moment to draft and send a quick response:
- In both the subtitle and article, author Jesse Feith prioritizes how elected officials and pro-Israel lobby groups perceived the protest at Bronfman rather than prioritizing the motivations that protestors have outlined themselves. This is a clear example of how media outlets often structure their entire article around how pro-Israel groups feel about a protest rather than the reasons a protest has been organized.
- Feith does not mention the motivations of protestors until the very end of her article. Even so, her description is incredibly vague. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights posted their demand for an end to Desautels’ exchange programs with Hebrew University, yet Feith only mentions a vague testimony.
- Feith embeds two tweets from M. Marc Miller and Anthony Housefather, where they call SPHR’s blockade of the building “antisemitic.” Yet, she fails to include media in support of the protest or SPHR’s initial Instagram post calling for the blockade of the building. To make matters worse, the article does not mention the solidarity group that organized the blockade– Students for Palestinian Human Rights– a single time, only its acronym SPHR. However, Feith will write out Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) when mentioned. Either this is a sign of substandard research, or an intentional omission. In whichever case, it's poor journalism.
- The article provides no context regarding Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, which perpetuates the false claim repeatedly spouted in her article that protests organized in support of Palestine and in opposition to Israel are antisemitic and unjustified.
Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage.
Thank you very much. Every response makes a difference.
The CJPME Media Centre Team
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