The Intercept: The New York Times bans the use of “genocide” in coverage of Israel’s attacks on Gaza and allows the term “massacre” to refer to Israeli deaths
According to the Intercept website, the New York Times issued instructions to its journalists preventing them from using some terms and avoiding others while covering the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The Intercept stated that the New York Times prepared a “word guide” for its employees for news texts about the Israeli attacks on Palestine and Gaza.
The “word guide” includes not using the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” while covering the attacks on Gaza, not using the word Palestine “except in very rare cases,” and not using the term “occupied” to refer to the Palestinian territories.
The “word guide” also urges journalists not to use the phrase “refugee camps,” which the United Nations has used since 1948.
In interviews with the Intercept, New York Times employees pointed out that some published news texts treated Israel’s actions with “respect”.
They added, “If you have no historical background and no idea what happened between Israel and Palestine, the situation may seem like it makes sense”.
However, other employees pointed out that such “directives” are standard practice, and that the use of words such as “massacre” represents emotions, not information.
It’s noteworthy that a report published by the Intercept website, last January, showed that other famous US newspapers, such as “The Washington Post” and “Los Angeles Times,” and not just “The New York Times,” avoided using the terms “massacre” and “atrocity” refer to the martyrdom of Palestinian civilians.
The report stated that the New York Times used the term “massacre” 53 times to refer to Israeli civilian victims, and only once to refer to Palestinian civilian victims.
