The Listening Post

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...

With Alexey Navalny’s death and Julian Assange’s extradition appeal happening within a week of each other, we look at the selective treatment of the two dissenters in the Western media. Lead contributors: Chip Gibbons - Policy Director, Defending Rights & Dissent Matt Kennard - Chief Investigator, Declassified UK Branko Marcetic - Writer, Jacobin Rebecca Vincent - Director of Campaigns, Reporters...

More than a million Palestinians have been crammed into the city of Rafah -  which is being bombed by Israel with the imminent threat of a ground invasion. Western media, however, has once again failed to communicate the severity of this moment. Contributors: Laura Albast - Media Analyst, Institute for Palestine Studies-USA Nabih Bulos - Middle East Bureau Chief, LA Times Adel Iskandar - Professor...

This past week’s elections in Pakistan were meant to be a formality, the outcome - a win for the PMLN - predetermined by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus. But despite their attempt to manage the narrative and meddle with politics, former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party, the PTI, had an unexpected pull with the people. Contributors: Amber Shamsi - Director, Centre for Excel...

Israeli intelligence accuses a UN refugee agency of collusion with Hamas – and the media take it at face value. Israel has for years been claiming that the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA) is in cahoots with Hamas. The latest allegations – which coincided with the International Court of Justice’s order for Israel to prevent genocide – bear the hallmarks of a distraction tactic. So far, the me...

Part 1: What does the ICJ ruling mean for Israel? Judgement day at the International Court of Justice. The court has ruled the people of Gaza must be protected from genocidal acts carried out by Israel. Richard Gizbert is joined by producer Tariq Nafi to discuss the impact this ruling could have on how the media discuss the war in Gaza. Part 2: Mohammed el-Kurd on Palestinian resistance Writer and...

The ICJ hearings have drawn scorn as well as shock from Israel’s media punditry. In the West, however, the case has emboldened journalists to ask tougher questions of the Israeli narrative. Lead contributors: Oren Ziv - Reporter, +972 Magazine Mouin Rabbani - Co-editor, Jadaliyya Selma Carmey - Human rights lawyer Gideon Levy - Columnist, Haaretz Daniel Levy - President, US/Middle East Project; Fo...

With the International Court of Justice deliberating over South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, we look at how the proceedings could affect reporting on the war. Contributors: Qaanitah Hunter - Journalist, News24 Nimer Sultany - Editor-in-Chief, The Palestine Yearbook of International Law Daniel Levy - President, US/Middle East Project Tony Leon - Political commentator On our radar: In Ecua...

After three months of destruction, displacement and the killing of Palestinians, we take a deep dive into the way the Gaza story has been covered. Since the attacks on October 7, The Listening Post has interviewed a range of experts on the news coverage – what’s missing in it, and how it has helped enable the crimes being waged on Palestinians in Gaza. In this special edition, we’ve compiled three...

In 17 years of The Listening Post, we have never seen a story anything like Israel’s war on Gaza. It has been a turning point for the world order as we know it and its media ecosystem – which is why, since October 7, we have covered nothing else. In this special edition, we compiled our reporting on the Gaza war over the past 12 weeks. The extent of the brutality, a genocide unfolding in plain sig...

According to Gaza’s government media office, Israel’s military has now killed 97 journalists in the Strip. Israel has barred international media from entering Gaza, firsthand reporting on the onslaught there has been left to Palestinians already locked into the occupied territory - documenting their own genocide. Contributors: Amahl Bishara - Professor of anthropology, Tufts University Arwa Damon...