By Joshua Yudkin
Media historians report that for most of the 20th century, print newspapers commanded a level of authority and respect directly resulting from their depth, nuance and thought. Perhaps beginning with the inception of USA Today, news outlets have produced increasingly shorter reports over the past 50 years, often eschewing the necessary nuance and depth to discuss complicated topics. In the status quo, many media consumers prefer and have been raised on the 280-characters limit on X (formerly Twitter).
There is power in narrative. There is agency in storytelling. Winston Churchill once stated, “History is written by the victors.” While our collective Jewish history is marred by countless examples of otherization where we were oppressed, exiled and/or murdered, we resiliently have safeguarded our history.
In community, through community, we create and preserve our radically inclusive Jewish narrative — after all, storytelling is the intersection of our individual perceptions. Steeped in the Jewish commitment to education, our Jewish narrative and, by extension, tradition is manifold, incorporating contrasting voices, competing ideas, contradictory reflections and a shared commitment to unconditional respect and love. Functionally, embracing Judaism is embracing diverse thought. Celebrating Judaism is celebrating our curiosity and community. Engaging with Judaism is engaging in critical thinking and with one another.
While our global village is increasingly more connected through complex and robust relationships, media is increasingly less nuanced. Prudence and poise have been replaced by postmodernist approaches that promote the sensationalized and grotesque. Simply put, there is an inverse relationship between the increasing complexity of the status quo and the increasingly oversimplified narratives presented.
This new reductionist approach defies our Jewish tradition of storytelling. As media consumers, we have a new burden to seek out, employ and embrace a comprehensive and critical story. To embrace the Jewish commitment to complexity and the pursuit of truth, beware of how modern media uses the following three tactics: (1) obfuscation, (2) omission, (3) obstruction.
Below, these three strategies are discussed in the context of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath:
Obfuscation: Obfuscation is the practice of making something unclear or unintelligible. When respected media outlets adopt, reflect and present deceptive language and statistics from internationally recognized terrorist organizations as reputable, stories are presented that are factually incorrect and/or misleading, confusing the individual consumer and impeding diplomatic efforts. For example, Palestinian terrorists launched rockets that landed on the al-Ahli hospital. Without verifying the information, media outlets served as a mouthpiece for terrorist organizations — not only incorrectly reporting inflated death tolls but also incorrectly reporting the rocket source. As a result, the Palestinian leader withdrew from, and Jordan subsequently cancelled, the quadrilateral summit to which U.S. President Biden traveled to attend. Moreover, the region faced significant protests based on false information and, globally, individual media consumers were guided to believe false information that was amended only after the adverse impact on public opinion was noted.
Omission: Omission refers to intentionally excluding (important) information. Stories are often incomplete and the takeaways are significantly different due to the missing critical information. For example, sensational statistics are reported without describing the actors, the actions and the “why.” Without this critical information, media outlets have reduced skilled storytelling to survey data collection. For example, media outlets mention that Palestinians were killed in airstrikes without denoting that those killed were terrorists actively engaging in terrorism activity. They may mention that United Nations facilities were bombed, but do not mention the terrorist compound within and the terrorist activities that were being conducted from such settings. They may mention that a health care worker was killed without mentioning that this health care worker is also an advanced chemist who develops missiles. Omission allows for plausible deniability and narrative manipulation.
Obstruction: The Society of Professional Journalists posits, “Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough.” Through obfuscation, information is not accurate. With omission, information is not thorough. Obstruction occurs when media outlets do not report fairly and introduce intentional bias, impeding the search for truth. Obstruction is a result of these aforementioned activities. Moreover, amplifying sensationalized terrorist-directed narratives that may increase viewership and revenue at the expense of the more nuanced and complex narrative is not fair journalism — it is an obstruction of the truth. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, we continue to see major media outlets cutting ties with alleged journalists who neither subscribe to nor practice journalism in alignment with the profession’s values.
Given journalism’s commitment to truth and objectivity, obfuscation, omission and obstruction are more subtle versions of what manifests in the global political arena. Echoing the words of Dr. Omer Dostri in a recent publication from the Army University Press, actors like Iran, Russia and China acknowledge that weakening Israel, a strong U.S. ally, effectively weakens the United States as well. As a result, these actors amplify terrorist voices through official, semiofficial and commercial digital platforms. This may be the reason why there has been limited to no coverage of the Chinese engineers and Chinese military equipment in the Gaza tunnels.
Yet, as Izabella Tabarovsky poignantly notes in her conversation with Eylon Levy in his “Israel: State of a Nation” podcast, these deceptive communication tactics are not new. They are likely toxic residue from, and/or a continuation of, anti-American Soviet propaganda tactics from the Cold War. Specifically, given the significant Soviet support for the Arab nations who were defeated in 1967 by Israel, they were humiliated and convinced that America must be behind Israel’s success. Therefore, attacking Israel was, de facto, attacking America. As a result, the Soviets launched propaganda campaigns against Israel and Zionism. For example, Tabarovsky reminds us that it was a Soviet speaker who accuses Israel of committing genocide in 1969 and that this claim was included in a subsequent article summarizing and normalizing such claims. Simply put, attacking Israel became (and still is) a proxy for anti-American and anti-Western (democratic) rhetoric. As a false and normalized pillar of the Soviet-inspired leftist ecosystem, attacking Israel, Zionism and, by extension, manifesting antisemitism serves to (1) unify forces on the far right and far left, (2) distract and deflect from horrific crimes that bad actors are committing, (3) ultimately undermine democracy.
As Americans and global citizens, we must remember that education is a necessary factor for a healthy democracy. The importance education plays in a democracy is not only a construct emphasized by thought leaders like Thomas Jefferson and John Dewey, but also something to which we bear witness in contemporary politics. Obfuscation, omission and obstruction in journalism mirror the manipulative propaganda strategies employed in the global political arena: They reduce the quality and veracity of the production and consumption of knowledge.
As Jews, we derive our power and identity from our story — our living and dynamic story that we co-author with a radically inclusive fervor. Jewish storytelling celebrates the complexity and nuance in our narrative. Based in a pursuit of truth, our story honors differences in thought and practice, emphasizing a relentless respect for all. Storytelling is the Jewish way of life — we learn, protect and tell our own Jewish story.
Dr. Joshua Yudkin currently serves as an executive committee member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas’ Community Relations and Public Affairs Departmen and works at the intersection of community building and public health.