What do you think?
Rate this book
How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza
As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But the US media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework.
How to Sell a Genocide is a thorough indictment of US corporate media's role in enabling—and, at times, directly inciting—one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitised Israel's war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanised the Palestinian people.
Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonisation of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, sustained complicity of the US media.
How to Sell a Genocide is a thorough indictment of US corporate media's role in enabling—and, at times, directly inciting—one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitised Israel's war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanised the Palestinian people.
Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonisation of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, sustained complicity of the US media.
256 pages, Paperback
Published April 21, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 26, 2026
However angry you think you are with the Biden/Harris administration and the liberal pundit class, I can promise you it is not enough. To have witnessed a live-streamed genocide, in HD, for 2+ years, while we are told we must fall in line and reward them with 4 more years of power, has psychological repercussions beyond my own understanding. But what Adam has described in painful detail here is, it was not done in a vacuum. The state and media apparatus, through well-documented and refined methods of dehumanization, distraction, and manipulation, have laundered mass extermination and genocide into a palatable Feel Good narrative that is already being used to rewrite history.
By walking us through the detailed analysis of thousands of articles, news shows, and essays, my rage feels renewed. The campus protests and fake narratives on crises of antisemitism; the silencing of any and all voices critical of israel and its genocidal policies; the orientalist tropes of biologically violent and sadist Arabs who lack cognitive ability - it's all meant to utterly dehumanize the Palestinian people and render their resistance outside the human condition. We must never forget: an occupied people have the absolute right - moral and legal - to resist their occupiers. By any means necessary.
By walking us through the detailed analysis of thousands of articles, news shows, and essays, my rage feels renewed. The campus protests and fake narratives on crises of antisemitism; the silencing of any and all voices critical of israel and its genocidal policies; the orientalist tropes of biologically violent and sadist Arabs who lack cognitive ability - it's all meant to utterly dehumanize the Palestinian people and render their resistance outside the human condition. We must never forget: an occupied people have the absolute right - moral and legal - to resist their occupiers. By any means necessary.
May 5, 2026
It’s almost shameful to admit now, but at the onset of the genocide I was a print subscriber to NYT. Each Sunday, reading through the paper became a ritual of driving myself insane as what was clearly unfolding before my eyes was minimized, obfuscated, or just ignored.
Johnson is an excellent media critic - I would highly recommend his podcast Citations Needed - and he has all the receipts on the first year of the genocide as covered through what is commonly referred to as the liberal media. He has the data to back the feeling I had when reading the NYT’s coverage.
It really should be enough evidence to send some of these editors and ‘journalists’ to The Hague, but as he points out in the conclusion, it’s unlikely any of these people will face any negative consequences because no one has ever faced consequences for parroting the State Department’s line. In fact careers will probably advance further, just like they did for those who helped sell the Iraq War. At least we have books like these to record the crimes committed.
Johnson is an excellent media critic - I would highly recommend his podcast Citations Needed - and he has all the receipts on the first year of the genocide as covered through what is commonly referred to as the liberal media. He has the data to back the feeling I had when reading the NYT’s coverage.
It really should be enough evidence to send some of these editors and ‘journalists’ to The Hague, but as he points out in the conclusion, it’s unlikely any of these people will face any negative consequences because no one has ever faced consequences for parroting the State Department’s line. In fact careers will probably advance further, just like they did for those who helped sell the Iraq War. At least we have books like these to record the crimes committed.
April 28, 2026
Quick read, several fugue states, Hague indictment material
May 2, 2026
“The primary role of our Center-Left media… was not to accurately convey reality but, for want of a better descriptor, to make their readers and viewers feel better… about their country, about their president, their institutions, and themselves. It was to rationalize, negotiate, obscure, and, ultimately, deny the most inconvenient of truths: a genocide carried out, defended, and authored by elite liberals and liberal institutions” (p. 5).
A total red-pill (said ironically). Like Alec Karakatsanis’ “Copaganda” and Michael Parenti’s “Inventing Reality,” a book that exposes the moral and intellectual rot at the core of elite liberal media, and, by association, the Very Serious political circles from which they source their opinions. Found the quantitative analysis especially interesting and important to drive the argument home. Also, I cannot stress this enough: the Editor in Chief of “The Atlantic” was an IDF prison guard during the First Intifada!
Anyways, I’d call it a must-read, especially as someone who consumes news from a handful of the outlets mentioned in this book semi-regularly: reading media criticism makes you an infinetly more discerning reader. Check it out and fuck Jake Tapper, Eliot A. Cohen, David Leonhardt, Graeme Wood, Joe Scarborough, and the many, many other sanctimonious scumbags who ran (and in many cases, continue to run) cover for genocide. Like Johnson, I’m not convinced any of them will pay for it in any real way, but in a just world, they would.
A total red-pill (said ironically). Like Alec Karakatsanis’ “Copaganda” and Michael Parenti’s “Inventing Reality,” a book that exposes the moral and intellectual rot at the core of elite liberal media, and, by association, the Very Serious political circles from which they source their opinions. Found the quantitative analysis especially interesting and important to drive the argument home. Also, I cannot stress this enough: the Editor in Chief of “The Atlantic” was an IDF prison guard during the First Intifada!
Anyways, I’d call it a must-read, especially as someone who consumes news from a handful of the outlets mentioned in this book semi-regularly: reading media criticism makes you an infinetly more discerning reader. Check it out and fuck Jake Tapper, Eliot A. Cohen, David Leonhardt, Graeme Wood, Joe Scarborough, and the many, many other sanctimonious scumbags who ran (and in many cases, continue to run) cover for genocide. Like Johnson, I’m not convinced any of them will pay for it in any real way, but in a just world, they would.
May 6, 2026
A well needed shot of moral clarity in an increasingly obfuscated society in which empty handwringing, blatant dehumanizing propaganda, and a media in servitude to empire have enabled and advanced the horrific destruction of Gaza.
What was it Lenin said about “freedom of the press” amongst capitalists over 100 years ago? What were Nyerere’s thoughts on America’s two party system? Both are integral to an analysis of the conditions that have lead to such a disgrace, and Johnson here thankfully leaves no stone unturned in his excoriation of the neoliberal media’s “coverage” of late 2023 and 2024 in Gaza and the campus protests.
“Who is allowed to be human?” Johnson muses, amongst analyzing hundreds of leading, doubt sowing headlines and fluff articles from the media that blatantly answer: in their eyes, certainly not Palestinians.
Essential reading.
What was it Lenin said about “freedom of the press” amongst capitalists over 100 years ago? What were Nyerere’s thoughts on America’s two party system? Both are integral to an analysis of the conditions that have lead to such a disgrace, and Johnson here thankfully leaves no stone unturned in his excoriation of the neoliberal media’s “coverage” of late 2023 and 2024 in Gaza and the campus protests.
“Who is allowed to be human?” Johnson muses, amongst analyzing hundreds of leading, doubt sowing headlines and fluff articles from the media that blatantly answer: in their eyes, certainly not Palestinians.
Essential reading.
April 25, 2026
I appreciated the thorough methodology and approach taken in the research of this book. The writing is clear and astute, and where subjectivity is applied regarding word choice or phrasing, well thought out justification is provided. Even though the content isn't necessarily revelatory to anyone who has witnessed and paid heed to the flagrant (unsurprising but nevertheless grossly disappointing) media complicity (perpetuation/perpetration) of Israel's genocide on Gaza, it doesn't undermine the importance of this well-documented account. I also appreciated that this book occupies a space where it makes sense for an American author to have written it -- Johnson doesn't stretch beyond what is appropriate for his positionality as a media critic, which is a level of sensitivity and journalistic and academic professionalism not always upheld. Johnson limits his substantiated opinion on future prospects to a very short conclusion, and while it is bleak (and inshallah doesn't play out), is not unrealistic. Free Palestine.
April 25, 2026
Despite having followed the genocide closely, such forensic recap still packs a massive punch. Grim but realistic conclusion which I agree with.
I would just mention The Grayzone as major source of debunking media lies which in this book are ascribed to The Intercept which didn't really do it first. Great read, sobering.
I would just mention The Grayzone as major source of debunking media lies which in this book are ascribed to The Intercept which didn't really do it first. Great read, sobering.
April 26, 2026
For two and a half years mass media has systematically lied, obscured, deflected, and obliterated journalistic standards in a show of unconditional material support of our government’s false narratives defaming all Palestinians and enabling what all reputable human rights organizations have described as genocide.
This behavior is nothing new. What’s different now is they haven’t been able to freeze out all other media. I recently heard the quote “morality is long term common sense.” Institutional power warps that reality. People begin to believe they can act unilaterally without consequence. By abandoning all moral obligations, mass media has propelled itself full speed into an unreality that will result in generations of harm; not only to innocent peoples all over the world but to itself, our Government, and citizens of the western world made complicit through taxation to pay for their crimes.
To make up for this staggering journalistic malpractice, individuals and organizations have been documenting this inconvenient reality. On paper we are supposed to have a government ‘for and by the people.’ Without adequate information integrity we are robbed of our ability to understand and judge the actions of the government that is supposed to represent us. This has done and continues to do irreparable damage.
In How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza, media analyst Adam Johnson has documented in great detail mass media’s many indefensible practices.
As someone who has painstakingly studied this exploitation of the populace perpetrated by our institutions, I have so much gratitude for this book. Above all I hope we can recognize this systemic failure and begin to rectify the unspeakable wrongs being visited upon so much of the world.
This behavior is nothing new. What’s different now is they haven’t been able to freeze out all other media. I recently heard the quote “morality is long term common sense.” Institutional power warps that reality. People begin to believe they can act unilaterally without consequence. By abandoning all moral obligations, mass media has propelled itself full speed into an unreality that will result in generations of harm; not only to innocent peoples all over the world but to itself, our Government, and citizens of the western world made complicit through taxation to pay for their crimes.
To make up for this staggering journalistic malpractice, individuals and organizations have been documenting this inconvenient reality. On paper we are supposed to have a government ‘for and by the people.’ Without adequate information integrity we are robbed of our ability to understand and judge the actions of the government that is supposed to represent us. This has done and continues to do irreparable damage.
In How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza, media analyst Adam Johnson has documented in great detail mass media’s many indefensible practices.
As someone who has painstakingly studied this exploitation of the populace perpetrated by our institutions, I have so much gratitude for this book. Above all I hope we can recognize this systemic failure and begin to rectify the unspeakable wrongs being visited upon so much of the world.
Read
May 17, 2026Hard to rate this one. It feels like a graduation thesis, in a good way — the author gives examples, analyses them, and proves a point. The comparisons of hypocritical headlines and word choices by major liberal media outlets were especially eye-opening. A reminder that words are never neutral.
It also made me think about my sad, old journalism diploma - buried somewhere in the deepest depths of a drawer for a reason.
It also made me think about my sad, old journalism diploma - buried somewhere in the deepest depths of a drawer for a reason.
May 14, 2026
Great read. An honest analysis of a dishonest media landscape. Would not recommend for those who like to feel warm and fuzzy, or those who have their heads firmly dug into the sand when it comes to world events.
May 11, 2026
Masterwork
April 22, 2026
A superb book that explains, with examples and data, how zionists have weaponised 'antisemetism', especially in the US media (social & legacy), Universities, companies, legal and government. How anti Israeli opinions are closely controlled and, if needed, shutdown. The manipulation of news stories to shift the negative from Jews to Arabs. This is not new but, via social media has hugely increased. The biase in reporting of 7-Oct-2023 and subsequent Gaza genocide is reviewed in detail. Very clear writing and explanations throughout.
April 24, 2026
Adam, I relived my frustrations with corporate media while also feeling vindicated for my bias against it. This book confirms why independent media is so important. It also explains why nihilism is so rampant among normies. Thank you and your team for pursuing the universal truth.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
thanks to edelweiss for the drc! 5 stars, rtc closer to publication when i figure out how to put money where my mouth is. In the meantime, know that the book royalties will be donated to the Middle East Children's Alliance, which, beyond the author's journalistic competency, speaks to a vitally important understanding of the ongoing genocide.
May 14, 2026
Very bleak with a particularly bleak ending but a very necessary read. If there was any semblance of justice in this world every single figure in “establishment” media would be tried in The Hague for laundering the coverage required to commit the genocide in Gaza.
April 30, 2026
6⭐️
Very important and interesting book in media bias on reporting of the Israel/Palestine conflict
Very important and interesting book in media bias on reporting of the Israel/Palestine conflict
May 6, 2026
Excellent example of actual investigative journalism.
May 9, 2026
excellent, really breaks down in numbers data and logic the horrific nature of liberal mainstream media selling of a genocide .
May 9, 2026
A compelling and comprehensive attack from the left.
Want to Read
May 13, 2026(added to to-read: i know this is gonna make my high blood pressure spike to new levels but i know it's gonna be so so important to read)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews