Elder of Ziyon notes that the New York Times has described the Israel Day Parade in Manhattan on June 2 as “mostly peaceful,” the same description it gives to pro-Hamas rallies that are anything but. More of his animadversions on the Grey Lady can be found here: “New York Times calls Israel Day rally ‘mostly peaceful,’ the same language they use for anti-Israel demonstrations filled with violence, incitement and hate,” Elder of Ziyon, June 3, 2024:
The New York Times coverage of the “Israel Day on Fifth” parade yesterday in New York City has a jarring sentence.
While the headline says, “Intense Security at Peaceful Parade for Israel in Manhattan,” within the article it says, “The event was mostly peaceful and drew very few protesters.”
“Mostly peaceful”? That phrase has become a euphemism to minimize the violence, intimidation and incitement seen at the thousands of anti-Israel demonstrations worldwide since October 7.
Yet there is a world of difference between anti-Israel and pro-Israel demonstrations. Even yesterday’s rally attracted anti-Israel protesters with violent messages that the NYT doesn’t want to cover, but the New York Post did, showing this protester with a “Kill Hostages Now” sign.
The Times minimized the peacefulness of the pro-Israel protest and ignored the hate from the anti-Israel demonstrators.
This is par for the course for the media.
The Black Lives Matters demonstrations in 2020 that often devolved into looting and burning areas of cities were also described as “mostly peaceful” by the media, a characterization that was much derided. Yet we see the same misleading language being used in anti-Israel demonstrations.
Not to say it is strictly inaccurate. Most demonstrators are not violent, and most demonstrations are people marching without causing damage. But the word “mostly peaceful ” is a meaningless term. By the expansive definition of “mostly peaceful” in the media, they could accurately say that war is “mostly peaceful” as well, since the amount of time soldiers are actually shooting is only a small percentage of their day.
You hardly ever see the phrase “mostly peaceful” to describe right-leaning demonstrations. It is not a description – it is propaganda that indicates the the bias of the reporters and editors.
When the NYT uses the same phrase to describe pro-Israel and anti-Israel rallies, it is equating the two. And there is no equivalence.
The pro-Israel rally in New York, as with virtually all pro-Israel rallies, was entirely peaceful, not “mostly peaceful”
Compare two London demonstrations this past week, The massive rally to bring the hostages home on Sunday, with 40,000 participants, went off without any incident. Four days earlier, however, an anti-Israel rally in London was described by the BBC this way:
Three police officers have been injured during a demonstration in Westminster organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups.
One officer suffered a serious facial injury after she was hit with a bottle thrown from within the crowd, the Metropolitan Police said.
40 arrests related to assaults on emergency workers, obstruction of the highway and public order act breaches were made, the force said.
Police said the “vast majority” of protesters – between 8,000 and 10,000 people – left without incident at the scheduled time.
A group of about 500 remained and continued to protest.
See? It was mostly peaceful, too!…
The New York Times uses the same phrase — “mostly peaceful” — to describe the pro-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations. But this is misleading. All of the pro-Israel demonstrations, including the Israel On Fifth parade that was held on June 3 as part of the Israel Day celebrations, have been not “mostly,” but “entirely peaceful” on the part of the participants. But the pro-Hamas demonstrations have also been described as “mostly peaceful.” And this is not true. They have been not at all peaceful, with loud shouting of slogans — “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” — that call for Israel’s total destruction and its replacement by a 23rd Arab state. These anti-Israel pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses have been accompanied by harassment of, and attacks on, Jewish students, takeovers of university buildings by force, and blocking of entries to libraries and lecture halls. Yet the Times, indulgent to a fault, keeps calling these violent protests as “mostly peaceful.”
When will the New York Times be shamed into describing truthfully these very different demonstrations? When will the mainstream media, not just the Times, begin to contrast the “entirely peaceful” pro-Israel demonstrations with the almost always violent demonstrators praising Hamas and calling for Israel’s destruction?
Ray Jarman says
To answer Mr. Fitzgerald’s question about when will the NYT be truthful with its description of the two demonstrations? The answer is probably when Hell freezes over or Israel completely destroys Hamas. There will probably be another cause to arise causing these same sub-human barbarians to enter the streets and other public property to show themselves as they actually are.
WPM says
The Chicago democratic convention around August 19 should be a real hoot !!! I hope the world does not go WW111 before then ,one never knows the democrats would put their own first born into a blender and drink them for breakfast to stay in power .WE do live in very interesting times !!!!!
James Lincoln says
Mostly means “greater than 50%”.
I.e., could be 51% peaceful.
WPM says
49 percent savage idiots ,51 percent idiotic dreamers ,100 percent useless dangerous people.
Yep the democratic party in 2024 what could possible go wrong?
Michael Paul Skok says
I became suspicious that the May 30th Trump trial was fair when I learned that a majority of the jurors read the New York Times.