It is one of America’s most widely read magazines. Its words are consumed by millions. Yet People Magazine seems not to care about its responsibility to provide its huge audience with fair and accurate coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Its coverage of events since Hamas’ brutal massacre of over a thousand Israeli civilians on October 7 has misled in two fundamental ways: its basic description and its wider context.
The first is apparent in a 24-paragraph article lamenting the situation of Gaza hospitals. Only in the final paragraph (if one is bothered to scroll to the end) are readers exposed, misleadingly, to the actual details of what has led to such a situation:
As reported Friday, 1,300 people, including 27 Americans, have been killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel, NBC News said, citing U.S. officials. The Palestinian Ministry of Health also previously shared that 1,537 people had been killed in Gaza.
People Magazine omits what happened to the Israeli people – men, women and children, who were not only slaughtered but also abused and kidnapped to Gaza.
Nowhere in the entire imbalanced article, which is devoted to the plight of Gazans only, does it mention that innocent Israelis are being held hostage.
Nowhere does it mention that Israel has said it would renew the supply of water and fuel to the Strip if the captives are released.
The article also uncritically quotes the deputy project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza as saying that many of their patients were children.
What People Magazine fails to mention is that two days earlier, the same official was disseminating lies to Business Insider, which had to issue a correction.
Relaed Reading: Business Insider Corrects After Grossly Misleading Over Gazan Child Injuries
Inaccurate descriptions of the deadly Hamas attack can also be found in this piece, where it is vaguely described as having taken place “along the Gaza Strip” and not inside Israel proper.
The fact that Israeli civilians were brutally slaughtered and taken hostage is missing in two other articles as well: One about a call by television personality Donny Deutsch to condemn antisemitism and another about an Israel vigil at the University of Florida.
One can only hope the reason for the omission is mere ignorance and unprofessionalism rather than a conscious attempt to minimize Hamas’ atrocities.
But in the case of some articles that create a false symmetry by lumping together Palestinian and Israeli casualties, the bias is clear.
Flawed Context
The second issue – the context and background that People Magazine has given to recent events in the region – is simply grotesque.
In an explainer piece trying to clarify why Hamas attacked Israel, the following paragraph parroting the terrorists appears:
Hamas leaders have said the group attacked in retaliation for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank which, like the Gaza Strip, has been a focus of the Israel-Palestinian conflict for more than a hundred years.
Members of the group have also cited recent Israeli police raids on a Jerusalem mosque as well as the detention of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails as reasons for the attack.
Putting aside the fact that Gaza was not the focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for “more than a hundred years,” why does People Magazine attempt to explain barbarism as anything other than what it is? Why does it not simply check the Hamas Charter, which declares “we will raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine”? Hamas has always tried to slaughter Jews and never needed any other excuse for doing so.
Related Reading: Hamas Massacre and Operation Iron Swords: What You Need To Know
But it gets worse. The explanations given in other pieces simply defy reason and basic knowledge of the conflict.
In a lengthy article detailing the eviction of former NBA player Dusty Hannahs from a rocket-hit city in Israel, the following background is given:
Israel and Palestine have been fighting for the right to claim Jerusalem as their capital for decades. Although Israel governs Jerusalem, Palestinians want control of East Jerusalem, which consists of the West Bank and Gaza, where several Palestinians now reside following their displacement as a result of 20th-century Arab-Israeli conflicts that began around the formation of Israel.
The geographical mess is ridiculous. Referring anachronistically to “Palestine” suggests the writer has no knowledge of the difference between the PA which holds sway in the West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza. And the ignorant nonsense about eastern Jerusalem “consisting of the West Bank and Gaza, where several Palestinians now reside,” suggests that whoever wrote this should probably stick to reporting on basketball only.
Similarly mixing the PA with Hamas and ignoring the fact that the latter has stated it does not accept the existence of Israel as a state, the following paragraph appears in a piece about Joe Biden’s speech that described the terrorist attack as “pure evil”:
The international community, including the U.S. and the U.N., strives for the warring nations to agree on a possible two-state solution and achieve peace.
Is it all emanating from ignorance, laziness to run a basic Google search, or rather an attempt to hide certain facts?
For the millions of people who are consuming People Magazine’s content, it doesn’t matter: They deserve better.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
