Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
Since before there was a state, Jewish officials have fought to convince the international media to report honestly on the Jewish people, Israel and the Arab world. However, it has always been a losing fight.
In large press conferences and individual meetings with international reporters, Israel’s leaders have never stopped trying to communicate our messages on the justice of the rebirth of Israel.
And how successful has Israel’s media outreach been during the past 90 years? So-so…..at best.
There have been a number of reasons for our lackluster results. Most importantly is that we fail to understand the level of hatred felt for Israel and Jews by those journalists staffing the international media.
Also, we are at a significant disadvantage because we continue to think like westerners, believing that logic and intelligent discourse will sway western journalists. But it will not, as proven by the decades of the foreign press defaming Israel.
Also, Israel places itself at an enormous disadvantage because almost no Israeli media advisors have ever worked--for more than the shortest time--in a newsroom, and they know nothing of the work culture in media, including how news stories are chosen, what the daily work flow requires of the staff, what incentives exist for professional promotions and who the newsroom staffs are……meaning officials do not know what foreign journalists think, what they read, who they associate with, and much more.
Above all, Israel’s media advisors need to acknowledge that much within the media world has changed radically in the past decades…..and almost all for the worst.
Here are a few points I think merit being passed along, based upon my fifty years as a working journalist.
Point 1: Forget the past
For decades officials in Israel working on media matters believed that foreign journalists were cut from the same mold as the World War II generation of correspondents and editors who reported from Israel during our early years. Those journalists had been through the Great Depression and World War II, and they knew right vs. wrong and were not hopelessly indoctrinated by woke university educations. Simply put, older journalists instinctively knew who the good guys and the bad guys were. However, that generation is long-dead, and so is their common sense, level-headed views of world affairs.
Point 2: The woke religion has destroyed journalism.
Take note Israeli media advisors, for the woke religion has destroyed the journalism we once knew. Today, too many working journalists no longer report facts, but instead are unapologetic activists promoting the tenets of their woke religion. In today’s news stories, facts no longer count and are often twisted or omitted to support the woke journalists’ religious perversions. In the warped world of woke journalism, black, brown and yellow skin people are always right about everything and always victims of people with white skin. This view, frankly, is just plain sick…..but is held by the vast majority of young journalists worldwide.
Those Israelis working in media issues might help our government to understand media in 2025, for just as bad as is their lying about and omitting facts, is the media’s refusal to report any narrative that threatens their perverted woke views of the world.
In daily practice, this means Arab terrorist attacks in Israel are not reported or, obscenely, Jewish terror victims are blamed for the attacks they endured.
Quite simply, according to the woke religion, a Jew killing an Arab is reported with great venom by the world media, while an Arab killing an Arab is never reported at all.
Point 3: Newsrooms are staffed by young idiots.
I have worked in newsrooms in Asia, Europe and the Arab world during the past 20 years, and have been shocked to see that they are exclusively populated by young, poorly educated college graduates. In these newsrooms there are almost no journalists over 35 years-old.
These young people are hired because they come very, very cheap. And, in my kindest description, these “journalists” are simply dumb in the extreme--they know nothing about their own countries and nothing about the world. They do not know about literature, history, economics or religion. Of course, they do not know how to evaluate events they report on or provide readers with context, which means they offer absolutely no value to readers.
But in truth, as every intelligence agency knows, such idiot journalists are the easiest to manipulate. For it takes little effort to “turn” journalists of all ages who know nothing about history, literature, bible, geography, war or peace. They simply are empty vessels. Remember this, media advisors, for such “journalists” can provide Israel with special opportunities.
Lesson 4: News photos are largely fraudulent.
In recent years I have had to select 250 photos per month for new organizations to publish, and am shocked by how many have been altered….perhaps a minimum of 50 percent. Smoke and fire are added into photos where there was none. Crowds are inserted or cropped out. Fire trucks, police cars, airplanes, and ambulances are also placed into pictures.
Further, most photos seen in stories about the woke’s holy of holies--climate change and race--- have been severely altered to support the journalists’ woke perversions. And shockingly, newsroom management is encouraging this. Clearly, brain-dead senior editors are supervising the armies of brain-dead reporters.
Point 5: Newsrooms are not only slanted against Israel in their stories, but the working culture inside newsrooms demands criticism of Israel and Jews in every news report about us.
From the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Associated Press, Reuters…..the international press will never report fairly on Israel, because in recent decades their newsrooms are staffed exclusively by woke savages who are thoroughly indoctrinated at their universities to hate Israel. Nearly every story--on air or in print---has an ideological agenda. Which is why stories about seemingly neutral subjects, such as Israeli archaeology, the biblical roots of Israel, local cuisine, and even Israeli ballet, must always include criticism of Israel.
This is not a new problem. Reporting some years ago from Bethlehem on the soon-to-be-extinct Christian community fleeing the Palestinian Authority, CBS’ Bob Simon declared that Christians were fleeing, not because of proven Arab bigotry, but because they were inconvenienced by Israeli roadblocks. Also, a New York Times review of a Be’er Sheva ballet company’s performance somehow included criticism of “West Bank settlers” inserted into the dance story.
And now there is something new and dangerous being spouted by woke journalists. We see during the current war that reporters are repeatedly seeking out quotes from those advocating for the creation of a one-state solution. We must understand that this is just a new route created by the left to destroy Israel. We should expect a lot more of such “news stories.”
Point 6: The media is simply not as important as in the past.
And no media is less important than newspapers, which are fast dying.
My hometown Chicago Tribune had a 750,000 daily circulation only a few years ago, while today it has a print circulation of 70-90,000.
In truth, the Tribune, like many newspapers, is a dead-man-walking, so Israeli advisors might want to minimize the time spent working with newspapers. It is the same at the Washington Post, where recent figures show that daily digital viewership fell from 22 million in 2021 to three million in 2024. And, don’t bet your paycheck that the Post’s three million number comes close to their true figure.
What’s more, newspapers’ paid digital subscription figures are largely fraudulent, as online readers “rotate” their subscriptions--canceling subscriptions every few months.
Point Seven: The impact of television news has been greatly diminished.
Israeli media advisors---here are a few more things to remind the boss when discussing the world press.
In the 1970s, 29 million Americans watched CBS news every night. Yet by the end of 2024 that number for CBS was 4.4 million nightly viewers. Viewership numbers are just as catastrophic at ABC and NBC news.
Over in the cable world, the once dominant CNN has recently seen viewers fall by 49 percent to 389,000 night time viewers, and the woke social disease called MSNBC has mercifully seen viewership fall 57 percent, from 1.34 million daily viewers before the US election, to just 576,000 today.
And again, to understand the impotence of today’s television news organizations, compare today’s pitiful numbers to the 29 million nightly viewers CBS once reached.
Of course, media advisors, you’ve got your work cut out for you: The media issues Israel faces in 2025 include not merely getting out the truth about Israel, not only honing the correct messages…..but finding ways to break down the newsrooms’ perverted culture of condemnation of all things Israel, and combatting young journalists’ hatred of Israel and Jews.
But among all this doom there is also good news, as a variety of Israeli agencies have done a fabulous job delivering Israel’s story on social media. While posting on numerous sites, some very bright Israelis have proven that they know very well how to hone messages and target specific groups.
So as we move forward, seeking to deliver the just message about the rebirth of Israel, let’s remember this:
1---Today’s members of the international press are dumb-as-doorknobs.
2---The media enemy has discarded “journalistic ethics” as they bow before their savage woke religion.
3---The media enemy is an empty vessel without sincere beliefs about anything, particularly morality.
So to Israel’s media handlers, remember that just as we stand with the thousands of Jewish men and women who rushed, after October 7 to join their military units even before they had received their orders, so the Jews of Israel stand with you as you battle the international media, and as you confront the lies and hatred transmitted by the world’s press.
I confess that the temptation to walk away from the battle with the international media is great, since arguing with such uneducated savages seems pointless. However, disengaging is not an option for Israel and, in truth, we must soldier on.
How do we find the strength? Perhaps by remembering February 1, 1948.
On that night, two British soldiers, both deserters, drove a truck up to the Jerusalem Post newspaper offices on Hassolel Street, which is now Havatzelet Street off Zion Square.
The truck was packed with explosives and when it was detonated it killed three and wounded twenty inside the wrecked newspaper building.
Assistant chief editor Ted Lurie was, at that moment, at the famed Cafe Atara on Ben Yehuda Street.
Lurie accompanied the wounded to the hospital, where he announced he would supervise their care. We can only imagine how pleased the doctors and nurses were to have Lurie’s medical assistance.
Around midnight, at the hospital, Lurie’s wife Tzila asked him, “What are you going to do to get the newspaper out?”
The overwhelmed Lurie responded, “Are you crazy?”
His wife, however, sternly reminded him, “Your job is to get the newspaper out.”
And he did. Moving the remains of the newsroom to a nearby apartment, scavenging half burned typewritten stories to be published, and locating a printer to get out the morning edition.
As Lurie did his job that night in 1948…..so today’s media officials in Israel must do their jobs to combat the endless lies, omissions, smears, blood libels and non-stop disinformation about Israel, which passes as the daily “news” distributed by the international media.
Remembering that Israel’s media advisors are struggling on behalf of all Israel and the Jewish people, may we deliver strength to them and pray they have the perseverance and wisdom to be successful in their battle against our worldwide media enemies.