The Addiction of the Western News Media

To Lethal Narratives about Israel

And its Disastrous Consequences for Everyone

Richard Landes, PhD, Presenter

Kenneth Levin, MD, Discussant 

Part of the Series, Rising Antisemitism: The Need to Respond

Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Palestinian cameramen produce an endless line of items that Dr. Landes terms Pallywood. B-roll Pallywood is basic background for the Palestinian-David vs. Israeli-Goliath story frame: rock throwing, ambulance evacuations. A-roll Pallywood blames Israel for deliberate murder of children. These “lethal narratives” inspire loathing among Westerners and hatred and a desire for revenge among Muslims. This film production would not have much of an impact outside of the captive audience of Palestinians, were it not for Western journalists who repackage these accusations as actual news, flooding our information systems with such weaponized fictions. This lethal journalism prolongs and aggravates the conflict, and tears at the very fabric of the civil society in Western countries whose media embraces these narratives.

Dr. Richard Landes is a professor of history at Boston University.  Trained as a medievalist, his academic work focuses on millennial movements from the origins of Christianity to global Jihad in the 21st century. In 2005 he launched a media-oversight project called The Second Draft with dossiers on Pallywood  and the Muhammad al Durah Affair. He blogs at The Augean Stables.

Dr. Kenneth Levin is a clinical instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has a PhD in history from Princeton. He has written extensively on the issue of anti-Jewish bias, including in academic settings, and its impact on its victims. He is author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege. Kenneth is on the Board of Directors of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Free Speech Society.

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