Don't Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide

by Assal Rad

A searing indictment of Western media that lays bare how the "free press," long tasked with speaking truth to power, instead became a vital part of the machinery that enabled the genocide in Palestine

If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them.

Activist and Middle East historian Assal Rad is known as the “headline fixer” for her powerful posts that illustrate how mainstream Western media’s coverage of the Gaza Genocide is filled with double standards. Israelis are described as "children" and "civilians," while Palestinians are "people under 18" and "collateral damage"; Israelis are killed; Palestinians die. Even in the wake of the so-called ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in For example, the Associated Press reported that "Gaza's living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5." No, Rad Gaza's living conditions worsen as Israel blocks aid.

In Don’t Say Palestine, Rad reveals a pattern of dehumanizing language—in outlets from CNN and the AP to the BBC and The New York Times—so consistently employed throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Mainstream Western media consistently downplays Israeli responsibility, “others” Palestinians, and casts doubt on inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in war zones. This groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action, mapping with devastating clarity the media’s complicity in whitewashing a human rights crisis.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Journalism, Audiobook, Middle East, War

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2026

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

free palestine 🇵🇸

(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
(review to come)

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There can be no peace in the Middle East, without Palestinian liberation."


Hind Rajab was a cute little 6 year old girl, who in 2024 was brutally murdered by Israel. She was trapped in a car surrounded by her dead relatives who had also been killed by Israel. She called for help(the recording is heartbreaking)Israel was able to hack the call and they circled back and shot her dead.

Assal Rad came to fame by correcting mainstream media headlines about Gaza on Twitter. She replaced the passive language in these stories with the actual language. She saw that mainstream media was normalizing Israel's horrific war crimes and perpetuating Israel's illusion of victim hood. She saw what the media was doing for what it was..racism and Islamophobia. Israeli are white and Palestinians are brown Muslims so they are undeserving of empathy. If you call it what it is Genocide, that means that the Israelis would face accountability.

Israel is a country of monsters.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry at least 71,660 Palestinians were dead(thats an undercount) and 171,000 injured. 80% of all buildings and infrastructure in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including houses, farmland, sewage systems,schools, power plants, and hospitals. But according to Western media and politicians all of history began on October 7th and everything Israel has done is completely justified. Israel is completely removed from responsibility for all if its actions and allowed to act with total impunity.

Instead of calling it genocide or ethnic cleansing the legacy media calls it "relocation" and "resettlement". The media's complicity is how international laws and norms are dismantled. Headline after headline erases Israel's brutality, the Palestinians deserve what's happening to them "because Hamas"

This same political and media class condemn Russia for its war crimes against Ukraine but they launder Israel's war crimes.

"Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel has a right to exist. Yet Western officials never acknowledge that Palestine has a right to exist and that Palestine has a right to defend itself."

"Genocide by definition is not simply an accumulation of mass death. Its the deliberate and systematic destruction of a people, carried out through policies aimed at erasing their present and future."

This book is amazing. Its also very anger inducing. I was raised to believe Never Again was universal but the last 3 years have taught me that it only meant Never Again for Jews. The holocaust is fine for everyone else and this time the Israelis get to be the Nazis so its good. If you think genocide is bad, you are antisemitic. If you think killing kids and old people is bad, you are antisemitic. If you believe in universal human rights, you are antisemitic....

Well I guess I'm antisemitic.

A must read!

"Genocide has been normalized through the tireless efforts of the Western "free press."

[Annotations&Air]

Explanation: I am extremely disappointed in the lack of cohesive research in this work. I expected much more from the author. Citing your own X posts is not a way to build your thesis, nor is citing the work of journalism outlets you spent the first 20% of the book discrediting. Also, using Wikipedia as ANY type of source is unacceptable.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an arc to review.

Don't Say Palestine dissects the language used within Western media to justify the Palestinian genocide. It gets to the core of how government bodies could condone the killings of so many innocent people and shift the blame from Israel time and time again, using traditional journalist corporations to help normalize these actions. Truly, this is one of the most important books I have read, and one of the most important books coming out right now. I thoroughly recommend it, especially if you want to be more informed on what is happening in Palestine, or want more information on how we have gotten to the point we have there.

[Alexandthesix · Rating 5 out of 5]

• I fucking hate Joe Biden. I hope that bitch rots in Hell with his friend Netanyahu.
• Fuck Legacy media.
And, as always, and forever, FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸🖤

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t think of anything to say about this book that hasn’t been said countless times already. It is devastating. Simply devastating. To go back over how grotesquely the media was in the destruction of Gaza and the liquidation of its entire society does not make for easy reading. At times, I almost felt like I was skimming because I just couldn’t bear to dwell too long on the details of what was being said. Of course, Palestinians in Gaza never had the luxury of turning down the volume or switching the channel. It’s becoming increasingly clear that legacy media is dying, and this book just reinforces the extent to which we should be glad for it. Now comes the real work of supporting, brave and independent media startups that won’t hide behind euphemisms and outright lies to cover up the greatest crime of our time.

[Eliza's Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t Say Palestine by Assal Rad is a fantastic critical look at how words spoken by the media matter on one’s perception of reality. The ability to show in an accessible way the differences between reporting of events that happen to people in Israel versus events that happen to people in Gaza is jaw dropping. I was reading this book and getting more upset at the failure of what I thought was a free and fair reporting by the few mainstream news stations I thought I could trust. Seeing the stark differences in not only what is reported but also how it is reported literally made me so angry. I feel manipulated!

This is such an important book for people to read and see how media (and by that I mean those who own the media) use words and language to form our opinion about what is or is not a genocide. It’s hard to believe that even with all the evidence proven through people on the ground using their own cameras, the high number of casualties not only civilians but also journalists on the ground in Gaza, and testimonies from people like those who work at World Central Kitchen of the atrocities taken place by the Israeli government, people still don’t know what to believe. Or maybe it is easier to say, I don’t know what to believe than it is to actually take a stand one way or the other.

I know this book made me feel uncomfortable but it was a necessary uncomfortable. Opinions can change and through books like this, eyes are opening. Even among Jewish people like myself.

Thank you, Assal Rad, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for review.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

the title really says it all, profound reading and highly recommend, particularly if you find yourself continuing to trust western media

[Chris Oliver · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, what a heap of steaming, antisemitic crap this book is. We haven't yet seen firm evidence that anyone at all has been killed "genocidally" in Gaza - i.e. intentionally and purely for being a Gazan "as such". We haven't seen footage that resembles Amritsar in 1919, Sharpeville in 1960, or My Lai in 1968. In November 1941, just weeks after the Babi Yar massacre in which 33,771 Jews were shot dead within 48 hours PURELY for being Jews "as such", the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem met Hitler, congratulated him on his sterling achievements in killing so many Jews, and practically begged him to hurry up and get his soldiers to the Middle East so they could work alongside an Arab Legion extending the Final Solution to the entire 13 million sq km Arab world.

Hitler was of course an antisemite who camouflaged his antisemitism as a form of caring: care for the German people, care for Europeans, care for the world beyond Europe which was being corrupted by Jewish-originated international communism on the one hand and by Jewish willingness to supply markets hungry for art forms Hitler deemed "degenerate".

If you've misframed this as an indigenous rights issue, bear in mind that only about 37.5 per cent of Israelis are Ashkenazi Jews with in many cases a very dilute ancestral connection to Israel (a connection that grows stronger when Ashkenazi Jews have kids with Mizrahi Jews or Arab Israeli Muslims). 37.5 per cent of the population could be said to have 37.5 per cent of Israel's land area, so 8,277 sq kms. So that's about 1/1100th the area taken from indigenous Americans by non-indigenous Americans. And of course the US isn't the ONLY territory taken from indigenous people by Christians and the Muslims the Christians subsequently let in.

Any bias towards Israel may be explained in terms of "if you can't justify Israel's existence it's hard to think of any state in the New World whose existence can be justified".

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was one of my most highly anticipated nonfiction releases of 2026… and therefore I felt let down.

This book is about exactly what the synopsis describes—nothing more. In it, Rad explains that legacy media has a history of being the mouthpiece for the government in power, and is thus complicit in the US imperialist government’s destruction of lives, lands, and nations all over the world.

My issue with this is that Rad seems to merely repeat arguments set forth by people such as Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky (in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media), while not giving us additional insight into the structures that have allowed this to happen in mainstream media. DON’T SAY PALESTINE isn’t investigative journalism; it’s merely a report. I wanted a deep dive into the decision-making decisions in the back rooms of the New York Times and BBC. Instead, Rad merely expands her descriptions of her social media posts in which she edits headlines that omit Israel’s role in committing genocide, downplay Israel’s genocidal decisions (such as making it seem as if famine in Gaza had just appeared rather than being completely manufactured), and overall shape the American public’s perceptions of what’s happening in occupied Palestine.

The thing is, if you’re someone who’s been paying attention and trying to educate themselves over the past few years, the points that Rad makes are already evident. If you’ve been actively applying your high school English critical reading skills to thinking about media headlines, then you will have already come to the same conclusions as Rad.

So, then, who is DON’T SAY PALESTINE for? It’s not for me, but it might make a good follow-up read for those who felt that Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This was one of the best books they’d ever read.

[AAO]

Palestine! And Palestine!

Who tells the story of Gaza, if not herself?

In her book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine Erakat* argues that the law is like a boat’s sail, it provides motion but cannot choose the destination. In other words, it is a tool and means to an end not an end itself. She goes on in that book to argue that Zionists and Zionism have used the law in that manner not only to take land, but to expand its colonial settler regime. That book was written before Gaza, and bad as the situation might have been we have had the horrors of the invasion and atrocities of the occupation since.

In this book, Rad argues very much the same argument, very much. Except, instead of the law, it is for the media. She puts forth the argument that media in the west are repeating and amplifying the Zionist narrative in the language they employ to, as justice has been constructed, construct the truth. It’s an old story, isn’t it? What’s new here is the context: genocide.

Widely known as the “Palestine headline fixer” Rad has been frequently featured in non-mainstream media outlets in the past few years on issues related to the Middle East. An activist, and historian of the modern Middle East, this is her second book and one on an issue for which she is regarded and sought as an expert. She’s been cited, particularly within the context of the war on Gaza, as an authority on the outright bias of mainstream media, especially in the west, when it comes to the Palestinian issue.

Rad breaks down headlines and media coverage and treatment to show how editorial decisions espouse and uphold a certain world-view, to the exclusion of another, oftentimes in grotesquely (even obscenely) unjust ways, and irrefutably purposeful. From using words like “died,” to bury facts like “slaughtered” to reporting misinformation and omitting mention of perpetrators and covering-up clear culpability to using objectivity itself, out-and-out, to favor one narrative over another.

I thought it was surprisingly well cited, even though we all know those media figures, outlets and articles. Books that have a political slant, as this does, typically are by nature a one-time read, but this here is one I may read several times. I am a journalist by background, academically and otherwise. I’d be interested in the media bias regardless, but this was actually really really good and offered an often overlooked, if apparently consequential, regardless of how unheeded a perspective.

I would even argue that the book is a good check on how bias filters into language itself in general, and may have value for writers if for no other reason than to show how word-choice is more revealing than writers may imagine it to be to readers.

Really appreciated the context which doesn't seem needed but will prove insightful in hindsight, particularly for posterity readers. There are details here that I already seem to have disburdened my memory of and the book helped remind me of. Gaza is such a milestone that it seems to require a guidebook to help make sense of the world after it. This is that manual.

I feel like books written before Gaza and after should be different, an this is the book that would be missing.

Because after genocide, what do we say?

Exceptional. If for no other reason than as a survey of a global historical, hard, moment. People around the world saw. We all saw. And know.

And if Gaza didn’t already do it, perhaps this will finally, FINALLY, break your fidelity to the received narrative, blow away the smoke and unveil the mirrors.

*Erakat has a book coming out next month “Confronting Zionism” co-authored with John Reynolds.

[Natalie Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

10+ stars! This is not only an education on how media is reporting on the Palestine genocide but informs on how to read media with awareness, especially mainstream media. The author is a skilled reader and also recommend her book as there are many examples of headlines she has corrected.

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Language became the sharpest tool in this media apparatus. Terms like "conflict" and "fighting" blurred the asymmetry of power; "air strikes" happened frequently without agents. When Israel was named, it often came with the phrase "targeting Hamas" to justify the attack, whether it was on a school, hospital, or refugee camp with Palestinians in makeshift tents, and no matter how many civilians were killed. The use of "targeting Hamas" became a means to normalize the mass slaughter of civilians by reframing indiscriminate bombing as a precise military campaign.”

“By referring to Palestinians in Gaza as "Gazans," the media construct a narrative that separates the issue of Gaza from Palestine and the larger issue of Palestinian liberation.”

[Shayla Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 rating! This is a very informative book on how Western media have framed the genocide of the people of Palestine and their undying support of Israel, despite the terror they have caused. The author paints a clear picture of how legacy organizations such as CNN, NYT, Reuters, etc. have framed Israel not being responsible for the atrocities that Palestinian people and Gaza have endured over the past couple of years. This was a very well researched account of who the media deems human and worthy of mourning and who is not.

[Emily | emilyisbookedup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this early copy. Pub date: 09.08.26

This is an important book that puts a spotlight on Western media for their incredibly passive language when it comes to actions perpetrated by their allies (and themselves). I didn’t notice it myself until the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran when American media was running stories with the perpetrator as their source of information, who was of course denying their part in the tragedy.

Rad points out that disinformation and this kind of puppeteering in the news is so dangerous in a “free world” with a “free press” because we expect our journalists to live up to the expectations set for them. We don’t expect there to be manufactured news stories, tweaked language to subtly shift blame, or words completely banned from publication. Citizens under dictatorships expect this from their news, American do not.

I’m glad Rad and others have taken it upon themselves to bring this into the light, and I hope those responsible feel shame for their part in this. I also hope one day we can dig deeper into the WHY. There’s no reason to justify what has been done, but we all deserve answers for why the wool was pulled over our eyes while they carried out the most heinous crimes against other human beings.

[Daniella · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it’s the first week of school here for my kids and I also got to sit and educate myself on a topic that has had a big impact on my life as a middle eastern person being caught between two worlds of passed down immigrant grief and being born in the US.
I think it is essential reading for all to be aware on how the media can push a narrative by meticulous wording.

Assal gives clarity and deconstructs articles and titles exposing how words contribute to patterns of dehumanizing language in mainstream western media.
This was extremely insightful to how I grew up watching the news with passages going back to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. And how to now closely view current events and intentions to alter facts.

I commend all who continuously give a voice to those who don’t have one. For the journalists who risk their lives. To the authors and publishers who put work like this out for us. Honored to receive this gifted galley as a KDGP Influencer thank you to the publisher.

[Liisa · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but an incredibly important one. Don’t Say Palestine by historian and Middle East scholar Assal Rad is a powerful, confronting examination of how Western media shapes public perception of war, whose suffering is acknowledged, and how language can be used to obscure responsibility.

Rad, known for her work as a “headline fixer”, dissects the reporting of major Western news organisations, including the BBC, CNN, Reuters, AP and The New York Times. Her argument is both simple and deeply unsettling: you don’t necessarily have to lie to distort the truth. Sometimes, it’s what you leave out, the words you choose, or the way you frame a headline that makes all the difference.

One of the most striking examples is how Israeli civilians are often described as being “killed”, while Palestinians simply “die”. Israeli children are identified as children, while Palestinian children can become “people under 18”. These might seem like small linguistic differences, but as Rad demonstrates, they can have enormous consequences. One identifies a perpetrator and acknowledges humanity; the other can obscure responsibility and diminish suffering.

And once you start noticing these distinctions, it’s impossible to unsee them.

What makes this book particularly compelling is that Rad doesn’t simply criticise individual headlines. She examines how these seemingly minor editorial decisions accumulate into a broader narrative that, she argues, has helped normalise and justify the devastation in Gaza. She explores the dehumanisation of Palestinians, the destruction of hospitals, the starvation of civilians, the treatment of Palestinian journalists, and the glaring inconsistencies in Western governments’ application of international law.

I found her examination of journalism’s supposed neutrality particularly thought-provoking. We tend to think of the media as an observer of events, but Rad challenges that assumption. News organisations don’t just report what happens. They decide whose voices are heard, whose claims are questioned, what context is provided, and ultimately, how history is recorded.

Although very different in approach, this book reminded me of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, another must-read for our times. Where El Akkad writes with deeply personal anger and disillusionment about Western hypocrisy, selective humanity and the collapse of moral credibility, Rad approaches many of the same concerns through the language of journalism. Both challenge the idea that Western institutions consistently uphold the values they claim to represent. Both ask uncomfortable questions about complicity, silence, and whose lives are considered worthy of protection.

And both left me feeling angry, saddened, and questioning how we have allowed so much suffering to become normalised.

At 256 pages, this is a relatively short book, but there’s a lot to absorb. It’s confronting, occasionally overwhelming, and certainly not a comfortable reading experience. Nor should it be. Rad makes a compelling case for why we need to look beyond the headlines and question not just what we’re being told, but how we’re being told it.

Perhaps the most disturbing takeaway is that propaganda doesn’t always involve outright lies. Sometimes it consists of thousands of small omissions, carefully chosen words, and supposedly neutral editorial decisions that collectively shape what we’re willing to accept.

This is one of the most important books I’ve read this year. Whether you’re trying to better understand what’s happening in Palestine or simply want to become a more critical consumer of news, there’s so much here worth thinking about.

A difficult, eye-opening and necessary read. Highly recommended, particularly alongside El Akkad’s book. Both will stay with me for a long time.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to understand and backed up with clear examples of English language media bias in reporting on Israel and Palestine, specifically the genocide in Gaza.

I'd say that this book would be best for someone who is looking for an introduction to the issue or who hasn't read much material on media bias on reporting on Israel. It's something that I'm familiar with, so I can't say that I came away from this with a lot of new information apart from specific examples from recent years.

Something that I would have been interested to see would be a comparison of coverage from the genocide compared to prior conflicts like the first or second intifada, and the difference in American public opinion between then and now. Rad touches on how media consumers now can see unfiltered and first-person coverage of the war on Gaza from social media (and brings up why that was an impetus to ban TikTok), and we have seen positive opinions of Israel nosedive among the American public.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

 If you haven't done so yet, please do yourself the HUGE favor of rushing out and getting a copy of Don't Say Palestine by Assal Rad. Infinite number of thanks to Vintage for sending this to me.

     This book is going to anger you, and it should. This isn't news to me, I've been aware for years, as I know many of you have been. But this is still a a vital book to read. I knew I was going to be a fan when the book starts with Rad acting as an editor fixing a headline, I feel like editors are all dead or something these days, headlines and articles are painful to get through, but I digress. Rad covers one of the most important events that is a genocide happening in real time, and how it is sugar coated in many outlets. Again highlighting why critical thinking and reading skills are so important and must be used at all times in the world we live in. Read between those lines, think about what the truth is that lies in the headlines and articles. 

      I could go on and on about this, but I'm going to stop and again, encourage everyone to add this to your must read list, put it at the top, the time is now for the subject of Palestine. However, the book should open your eyes to how these same tactics apply to so many topics and news stories that we encounter every day.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

powerful, poignant, persuasive

[Sarah Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me so angry. Not because of the writing, which was fantastic, but because no matter how informed I try to stay, I’m realizing how much is hidden by the media. Everyone should read this book. Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[SplatterGunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is unbelievably important and we shouldn’t still be sitting here as an entire western world debating whether or not this atrocity against the Palestinians is a genocide, when it so clearly is and so clearly has been since the beginning.

Rad does her absolute best to address the entire situation of culpability that the Western media has played in downplaying the absolute tragedy that is happening to the Palestinians right now from Gaza to East Jerusalem, to the West Bank. Rad address things most people are unlikely to know such as open fire on World Central Kitchen workers, ceaseless murders of Palestinian journalists and the lies claiming these journalists were “terrorist” just to cover up the crime, and the cold blooded murder of five year old Hind Rajab and her family.

I want to be perfectly 100% clear during my review of this books. My anger and sadness over all of this is not direct at the Jewish people and does not come from any sort of antisemitism. I also feel a deep sadness for the people of Israel who are deeply indoctrinated by their society to think that this is okay and normal. I was really shocked to find out that something like 80% of Israelis are completely okay with what is going on right now. And I believe that kind of thing only happens when horrible people are allowed to be in charge of a government or country. (I do not remember this statistic being mentioned in the book, this is independent knowledge acquired elsewhere.)

One day people will know even more about this time in history and people will be able to write books about this with even more information than what we have now. And I hope to God all the people that think that this is okay or that are even completely denying that this is a genocide feel so absolutely ashamed and disgusted with themselves.

[Fatima Almansouri · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

This book was a great informative read, and I really liked how Assal Rad connected so many different pieces. I especially liked how she spoke about the hypocrisy in how the world responds to Ukraine and Russia compared to Palestine and Israel. It's hard not to question why international solidarity and outrage seem to depend on who is involved. I also really liked how Rad references Iraq and how familiar some of these patterns and talking points feel. The justifications, the political narratives and the way certain lives seem to matter more than others we're all brought up in this book, making the reader stop and ask, why? Why are Middle Eastern lives so often treated as less worthy of the same empathy and protection? Why do some people receive worldwide sympathy while others have to prove their humanity before the world pays attention? Why is one country's suffering framed as a tragedy while another's is treated as unavoidable consequences of conflict? And why does accountability seem to depend on who holds the power? As a Middle Eastern reader, these question are especially difficult to ignore. I appreciated how the book connected politics, media coverage, history, and TikTok to show how narratives are shaped. It made me think about how much of what we believe is influenced by what we're shown and what gets left out and whose voices are actually heard.

[Cynthia Brendel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks so much to Vintage for the gifted copy of this book. Assal Rad is known for correcting headlines concerning the genocide in Palestine on social media. This book provides context and explanation for why that’s necessary, why the headlines are incorrect to start with, and what the media’s framing of this genocide means. Rad gives a detailed explanation with plenty of examples of how Western media has dehumanized Palestinians while denying, muddling, or defending Israel’s actions in both direct and indirect ways. If you want a book to piss you off? This is the one. It highlights the hypocrisy of the “free press” and is extremely harsh (deserved) on the Biden administration. It’s a compelling book that’s easy to read, and it feels important to understand the phenomena that she’s discussing. Highly highly recommend this one.

[Maddie Plank · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The narrative of destruction was framed as a catastrophic outcome of a war started October 7th rather than the outcome of decades of unrestrained dispossession, occupation, and oppression of Palestinians, and a calculated Israeli policy to bring about the annihilation of a people.”

High schoolers will refer to legacy media’s propaganda regarding the Palestinian genocide while writing AP World History papers in 10+ years, if the system does not collapse before then. We are in the midst of it and are letting it happen. To witness genocide and undermine it because of LANGUAGE. It’s horrifying and brilliant. The press is not free as their favorite sources are the perpetrators themselves.

May we never reject the evidence of our eyes and ears. Dare I say, thanks social media.

Great book.

[Jennifer Abdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assal Rad apoeared on my radar with her prolific Twitter posts correcting the headlines on Israel's genocide in Gaza, highlighting legacy media's abject failure to look out the proverbial f-ing window. They manufactured consent.

Rad plainly states that she is criticizing media outlets that told journalists how they must not say Palestine, ethnic cleansing, and other clear descriptions also stating that there were many good journalists pushing back.

She asks where are we when journalists serve power and stop holding it to account.

[Madelyn Rowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s harrowing that a non-exhaustive list, more or less, of headline errors regarding legacy media coverage of Palestine could total 200 pages in 10 pt. font. And yet, it’s something of a journalistic feat that Assal Rad has managed to put that exact thing forward here, as she relentlessly demands even an ounce of integrity from outlets who refuse to name Israel as culpable for the Gaza genocide. Reminiscent of Chomsky and Herman’s “Manufacturing Consent,” Rad clearly and concisely lays out the groundwork for the greatest failure of mass media of our time.

[Nina Keller]

Very important work. I’ve been following Assad Rad’s headline fixes throughout this post Oct. 7-genocide, and this comprehensive reporting and analysis is undeniable. I’ll never forgive Israel for its civilian death toll, especially the children, medics, aid workers, and journalists. It’s disgusting, and international government complicity needs to end, as well as the occupation, apartheid, and systematic abuse.

[Rhonda · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

This is based on US and UK media examples, but it is exactly the same in Australia's mainstream media - not calling things what they are, for fear of being labelled "anti-semitic". The use of passive language and omitting the aggressor also applies to media reporting of domestic violence. This is a relatively short book, but it doesn't need to be any longer to make its key points. If this doesn't convince you, nothing will.

[Ellie Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

A powerful indictment of western journalism and its deference to power. Assal Rad spells out with devastating precision the role of the media in dehumanising Palestinians and manufacturing consent for genocide. This is an important piece of history, and it’s documented with stark clarity in this book. “Communication can become participation when it legitimises extraordinary violence,” writes Rad, and most devastatingly, it is not so much a failure of the system as it is the system working as it was always meant to work. A powerful piece of work, this is an absolute must read for all of us and for all generations to come.