Rita Panahi: Troubling letter a new low for media at war with truth and reason

The media is full of activists masquerading as impartial journalists but those signing a letter calling to treat Hamas and the Israeli government as equally untrustworthy have hit a new low.

More than 250 Australian journalists, backed by the journalists’ union, have signed a shameful open letter that seeks to equate the only real democracy in the Middle East to a mass murdering terrorist group.

It’s hard to describe the document bearing the signatures of several high profile journalists, and many more also-rans, as anything other than deeply troubling and anti-Semitic.

Journalists from several media outlets, including from the ABC and SBS, as well as Nine, Ten and far-Left publications, such as The Guardian, Crikey and The Monthly signed a letter calling for the media to “apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied
to Hamas”.

By all means scrutinise every bit of information but what sort of anti-Israeli zealotry would see any media professional treat Hamas and the Israeli government as equally untrustworthy. Do they forget that Hamas are subhuman savages who a few weeks ago burnt families alive, beheaded babies, raped and tortured women and deliberately used their own people as human shields.

If you hold Israel to a different standard than every other democratic nation then you may be an anti-Semite. Picture: AFP

The statement also claims “the conflict did not start on October 7” and that audiences should be given context such as “the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their native lands in 1948 to make way for the state of Israel.”

If you hold Israel to a different standard than every other democratic nation then you may be an anti-Semite.

Indeed, that’s one of the definitions of the word according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Another is denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and claiming that the existence of Israel is a racist endeavour.

Those signing this letter, including the ABC’s Tony Armstrong, Patrick Lenton and Benjamin Law, Nine’s Cathy Wilcox, Marnie Vinall and Lachlan Abbott, Network Ten’s Narelda Jacobs, The Monthly’s Rachel Withers, Crikey’s Bernard Keane and a contingent from The Guardian including Greg Jericho should reflect on why they demand behaviours from the only Jewish state not expected of any other democratic nation.

The media is full of activists masquerading as impartial journalists but this is another low for a profession that is often lacking moral clarity and at war with truth and reason.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist