Adam Johnson: How U.S. Media Helped Sell Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

October 24, 2026, Joshua Scheer, SCHEERPOST

“The word genocide has implications and obligations. It’s not just a buzzword.”

The bombs come from Washington. The justifications come through the news. As Israel devastated Gaza, leading U.S. media organizations repeatedly amplified official claims, minimized Palestinian suffering and presented the politicians supplying the weapons as concerned observers struggling to stop the killing. On FAIR’s CounterSpin, media analyst Adam Johnson joins host Janine Jackson to examine how that coverage helped make mass death politically acceptable.

Johnson, cohost of Citations Needed and author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza, argues that this failure reaches beyond individual falsehoods or careless headlines.

It rests on a hierarchy of human worth: Israeli deaths demand outrage, while Palestinian deaths are explained away as the unfortunate consequences of military necessity. The language of news coverage, he argues, teaches audiences whose lives to mourn—and whose destruction to accept.

The conversation examines how sensational claims can retain their political power long after they unravel. Officials receive prominent platforms to spread allegations; subsequent challenges receive less attention, and the same sources return to shape the next story. Johnson describes a succession of propaganda claims that keep journalists and critics chasing corrections while the violence those claims helped justify continues.

He also challenges coverage that portrayed the Biden administration as powerless to restrain Israel while it continued supplying arms. In Johnson’s account, this framing obscured U.S. responsibility, turning material support for the destruction of Gaza into a story about frustrated diplomacy and good intentions.

For Johnson, accountability requires confronting the institutions and political figures that enabled the killing—including those who claim the language of liberalism and human rights. This CounterSpin discussion asks what journalism becomes when it grants power the authority to explain away its victims, and what meaningful accountability would demand from the media and politicians who helped sell the war.

Read The Transcript Below.

Corporate Media Need a Watchdog.

When powerful interests shape the headlines, somebody needs to challenge the story. Since 1986, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) has exposed media bias, challenged censorship and called out coverage that sidelines dissent while giving power a free pass. Through CounterSpin, Extra! and incisive media criticism, FAIR pushes readers to question whose voices get heard—and whose get buried………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://scheerpost.com/2026/10/24/adam-johnson-how-u-s-media-helped-sell-israels-genocide-in-gaza/