Let's talk about the cowardice of modern journalism.
When Jews are butchered in their homes, they "die." When Jewish children are murdered in their beds, they become "casualties." When terrorists deliberately target Jewish civilians, we read about "losses" and "incidents" and "escalations." How terribly convenient.
But flip the script, and suddenly our timid editors discover their spines – and their adjectives. Now we read about "brutal killings," "devastating attacks," and "violent assaults." The passive voice that so reliably appears when reporting Jewish deaths miraculously vanishes. The clinical distance evaporates. The moral outrage, so conspicuously absent before, erupts in full force.
Let's call this what it is: journalistic malpractice fueled by ancient prejudices wearing modern clothes.
When a terrorist deliberately breaks into a home to murder a Jewish family, that's not an "incident" – it's a massacre. When militants target Jewish schoolchildren, that's not a "tragedy" – it's premeditated mass murder. When civilians are targeted because they're Jews, that's not a "casualty" – it's a hate crime.
This isn't about politics. This isn't about complex geopolitical conflicts. This is about the basic moral obligation to call murder by its name.
To those journalists who carefully sanitize their language when Jewish blood is spilled: Your choice of words reveals your moral bankruptcy. Your linguistic gymnastics expose your bias. Your editorial decisions show exactly how much – or how little – you value Jewish lives.
Every time you soften your language, every time you reach for the passive voice, every time you transform deliberate murder into a mere unfortunate occurrence, you become complicit in normalizing violence against Jews.
Enough.
Murder is murder. Terror is terror. The deliberate killing of civilians is exactly that – deliberate killing. If you can't bring yourself to use the same language when reporting Jewish deaths as you do for others, at least have the decency to admit your bias.
To news editors worldwide: Your thesaurus works just fine when you want it to. Your grasp of active voice remains intact when it suits you. Your capacity for moral outrage still functions perfectly for other victims. The only thing missing is your courage – or perhaps your conscience.
It's time to demand better. It's time to call out this journalistic cowardice for what it is. Because when we allow murder to be sanitized, when we permit terror to be softened, when we accept the normalization of violence against Jews through carefully chosen words, we become part of the problem.
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