The Listening Post

One might think that images of starving children, as political leaders withhold aid and openly call for ethnic cleansing, would be topping news agendas everywhere. In the case of Gaza, the failure of many in the international media to meet the moment has made them part of the story. Lead contributors: Chris Doyle – Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding Daniel Levy – President, US/Middle...

A deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir shattered a narrative Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has spent years constructing - that Kashmir was safe, open for business, and back to “normal”. In response, Indian officials have launched a sweeping crackdown and spurred nationalist rhetoric. Much of the media is echoing the government line. Too busy demanding revenge to ask the most ba...

As tech billionaires infiltrate the White House, the question looms, “Who really rules us, the government or Silicon Valley?" This film examines the influence and ideology of technocrats over the last century, and asks whether they pose a threat to democracy. Contributors: Gil Duran – Tech journalist Siva Vaidhyanathan – Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia Payal Arora – Digital anth...

The renewal of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has unleashed yet more death, destruction and displacement, but Palestinians remain determined to make the world witness their plight. Contributors: Shahd Abusalama – Palestinian scholar and artist Omer Bartov – Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Brown University Abdaljawad Omar – Lecturer, Birzeit University; writer and analyst The art o...

Over the past month, hundreds of international students in the US have either been detained, deported, or stripped of their visas for protesting Israel’s war on Gaza. The Trump administration’s crackdown is being described as an assault on political dissent - one that has been enabled by mainstream news outlets and pro-Zionist pressure groups. This story is about more than just visas. It’s about w...

Turkiye is witnessing its largest protests in more than a decade. Millions have taken to the streets after the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu - who is seen as the biggest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidency. Nearly 2,000 people have been detained so far, including journalists. But despite myriad official efforts to suppress news coverage, protesters keep pouring on...

The ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in January barely lived up to its name. Despite the deal, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza, killing more than 150 Palestinians in just eight weeks. The last remnants of hope were shattered as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched one of the deadliest bombing campaigns since the genocide began - followed by a ground invasion. Israeli outlets...

Just months after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria has been rocked by an eruption of violence. Coastal towns have turned into killing fields, with forces aligned with the government accused of massacring hundreds of civilians from religious minorities. The Syrian online space is also littered with misinformation - part of an information war that is inciting sectarian fear and deepening...

Seven weeks into the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel openly resumes its war crimes in Gaza - blocking humanitarian aid - with the tacit support of the international mainstream media. Lead contributors: Daniel Levy – President, US/Middle East Project Saree Makdisi – Professor of English and comparative literature, UCLA Samira Mohyeddin – Founder, On the Line Media Mouin Rabbani – Co-editor, Jadaliyya O...

With international media’s attention on the captive exchange, the Israeli military and settlers are forcibly displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israeli journalists are parroting military talking points of security operations. Contributors: Abdaljawad Omar - Assistant professor, Birzeit University Jehad Abusalim - Co-editor, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fir...

The far-right AfD threatens to breach the political "firewall" that has long kept it out of power, as election disinformation from both the US and Russia disrupts the German media’s election coverage. Contributors: Olaf Böhnke - Berlin director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation Ulrich Brückner - Political analyst Michaela Küfner - Chief political editor, DW On our radar: This week, US President...

It’s an alarming moment in US politics. Developments have been fast and furious, with Donald Trump flooding the news space at a rate journalists find hard to handle. His plan for an American takeover of the Gaza Strip, the reshaping of federal agencies and the unchecked power handed to Musk all beg a question: Who is really running the country? Contributors: Danielle Moodie – Host, The Danielle Mo...

The return of more than half a million displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, having survived war, siege and starvation, is a historic moment. For right-wing media outlets in Israel, however, it's a humiliation. Contributors: Abdullah Al-Arian – Associate Professor, Georgetown University in Qatar Jehad Abusalim – Executive Director, Institute for Palestine Studies Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man – Di...

A year into the civil war in Sudan, the humanitarian costs have been staggering - but the news coverage has been minimal. A conflict on this scale should top the news agenda but it has been relegated to the back pages – in part – because of what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine. And it is increasingly difficult to deny that the lack of media interest in this war comes down to where it is being fou...

The algorithms that Big Tech designed - and the genocide they assisted. The Listening Post explores how Israel’s killing campaign of Palestinians has relied on artificial intelligence to choose its targets. A dystopian nightmare serves as a marketing campaign for technology flawed by design, and deepens the global digital divide. Contributors: Sophia Goodfriend – Researcher, Duke University Mona S...

It is election season in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems set to win a third successive term in the national elections — for good reason, say his supporters. They claim 10 years of the Modi government have transformed India, from lifting millions out of poverty to elevating India’s global status, but his critics say Modi’s record is far from perfect. In this episode of The India Report...

With international reporters locked out, Palestinian journalists have made huge sacrifices to keep the world informed of the unprecedented killing and destruction in Gaza. More media workers have been killed by Israel since October 7 than in any other conflict in modern history. Like the rest of the population, Gaza's journalists have also been maimed, arrested or threatened, have seen their homes...

Six months into Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, the United Nations Security Council has finally passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire. The United States’s abstention marks a pivotal moment in Israel’s increasing international isolation. In the Israeli media, the opposition to the UN vote is near-unanimous and unsurprising. More striking is the lack of interest from American news outlets. The...

With India amid a national election campaign, its news media is in sharp focus. Until recently it was believed that the sheer diversity of outlets ensured a range of perspectives, but now, India’s mainstream media has largely been co-opted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just how did the media in India get to this point and what does it mean for the upcoming electio...

The threat to ban TikTok in the United States has prompted an online backlash. Critics question the premise that Chinese ownership poses a security risk and suggest the real reason may be the surge in pro-Palestinian content since October 7. Contributors: Julia Angwin - Tech Policy Writer, New York Times; Founder, Proof News Russel Brandom - Tech Editor, Rest Of The World Marwa Fatafta - MENA Poli...

Elections are weeks away in India and opposition parties are attempting to take on the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking a third consecutive term. The opposition claims that Modi’s success rate has very little to do with his governance – but more because scores of his political rivals have been arrested or charged on questionable grounds. They say it...

With the global media’s attention trained on Gaza since October 7, things have worsened for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and near impossible for journalists to cover. With their movement severely restricted, dozens of Palestinian journalists have been arrested, often held without trial or charge. Contributors: Anan Quzmar - Journalist Assal Rad - Middle East Scholar and Author Mariam Ba...

The politics of Hindu nationalism have played a central role in the dramatic rise of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As the elections have neared, the Modi regime has turbocharged its Hindu-first agenda - best exemplified in the inauguration of the Ram Temple in the city of Ayodhya. Veteran journalist Sreenivasan Jain explains how the opening of this temple - and the whitewashing of its...

The United States' airdrops of aid into Gaza are a textbook case of cognitive dissonance on the part of the US administration - dropping food while continuing to send Israel bombs with which to pulverise Gaza. And the gulf between what’s happening on the ground and the mainstream media’s reportage continues to widen. Contributors: Laura Albast - Fellow, Institute for Palestine Studies Mohamad Bazz...

In December 2023, The New York Times published an explosive article - now widely discredited - that detailed Hamas’s agenda to weaponise rape and sexual violence on October 7. We reveal the controversies surrounding the article along with the broader issue of Western media outlets’ pro-Israeli/anti-Palestinian bias. Lead contributors: Ali Abunimah - Director, Electronic Intifada Chris Hedges - For...