Ted Galen Carpenter on war propaganda

[T]oo many journalists have given exposure to questionable Israeli accounts. One story that made an especially big splash was a report that Israeli troops had found at least 40 dead babies “some beheaded,” in an Israeli kibbutz recaptured from Hamas. That story soon became clouded with uncertainty. At first, the Israeli government conceded that it could not confirm the report. Then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office presented photos of dead children, although their authenticity could not be verified by outside experts.

Whether true, false, or exaggerated, the account had served its purpose as widely circulated propaganda to generate hate toward Hamas and the Palestinians. As pervious wartime episodes have confirmed, most readers and viewers remember the initial high-profile stories about alleged atrocities (often vividly when bloody images are used) rather than later, more restrained, less prominent analyses. Pro-war propagandists shamelessly exploit that tendency.

Indeed, this Israeli account had a somewhat musty quality. Hawks used a similar story in late 1990 about Iraqi troops pulling Kuwaiti babies from incubators in a Kuwait city hospital and letting them die on the floor. The supposed witness to the atrocity turned out to be the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States. Subsequent investigations confirmed that the story was bogus, but by that time, it had helped shape public opinion to support President H. W. Bush’s decision to launch Operation Desert Storm.

Indeed, the tactic of using exaggerated or phony atrocity stories (frequently with innocent children as the victims) goes back much earlier. During World War I. the British government conducted an extensive campaign to portray Imperial Germany as the epitome of evil, Kaiser Wilhelm II as “the beast of Berlin,” and German troops as homicidal monsters. One very effective initiative was the circulation of supposed eyewitness accounts of German soldiers raping nuns and bayoneting babies. Those phony propaganda stories were not debunked until the postwar years.

Given that history, one might think that responsible journalists would be very cautious about regurgitating accounts – especially atrocities stories – put forth by one faction waging a war. However, with respect to both Ukrainian and Israeli accounts, most establishment media outlets have displayed very little prudent skepticism. Such unprofessionalism has embarrassed previous generations of editors, columnists and reporters. The same dismal outcome is likely this time.

~ Ted Galen Carpenter, "Credulous or Dishonest Journalists Regurgitate Pro-War Propaganda," Anti-War.com, October 17, 2023

WWI propaganda poster