For Facts’ Sake Ep3: Misinformation, news and genocide denial
For Facts’ Sake Episode 3
Host: Tebadi Mmotla
Introduction:
The first casualty of war is truth. This saying is attributed to Hi-rum Johnson, who was a prominent American senator from 1917 to 1945.
It’s often been used to indicate that during conflict and war, information is contested.
Governments have used propaganda and information manipulation to legitimise their actions. They also use it to undermine their enemies, and to suppress information about what they are doing.
The news media is often caught in the crossfire between truth and falsehood, and risk becoming complicit in misinformation narratives. This is also the case of media reporting on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Critics have accused Israel of deliberate misinformation – questioning civilian deaths, disputing the number of people killed, discrediting sources reporting Palestinian death tolls, and killing journalists who report on Israel’s actions.
In this episode of For Facts’ Sake, we look at what is meant by genocide denialism, and what happens when the media gets their reporting wrong.
