The Listening Post

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza is being witnessed in real time, with Palestinian civilians broadcasting their own bombardment; Israeli soldiers streaming sadistic acts of humiliation - proof of an historic crime. The question Palestinians are asking - urgently - is whether it will make any difference. Contributors: Ariella Aisha Azoulay - Professor of Modern Culture & Media, Brown University Om...

More than 60 days into the Israel-Gaza war, two Israeli news outlets - +972 magazine and Local Call - published a report on The Gospel, a new artificial intelligence system deployed in Gaza. The AI helps generate new targets at an unprecedented rate, allowing the Israeli military to loosen its already permissive constraints on the killing of civilians. Contributors: Marwa Fatafta - MENA Policy and...

If the United States has aided and abetted Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the European Union’s role has been one of quiet complicity. In a special edition of The Listening Post, we examine the discourse around the conflict in three EU countries: Germany, where shows of support for the Palestinians have been heavily suppressed; France, where television news channels have distorted t...

Forty-eight days of bloodshed later, a truce lasting 96 hours - between Israel and Hamas - has come into effect, giving Palestinians in Gaza some temporary room to breathe. But in the information war, there is no ceasefire in sight. Contributors: Abboud Omar Hamayel – Academic, Birzeit University Hussein Ibish – Arab Gulf States Institute Mia Bloom – Professor, Georgia State University Shashank Jo...

The evidence provided by Israeli forces to justify their attacks on Gaza's hospitals has come up short - and so has the news coverage. Contributors: Alice Rothchild - Health Advisory Council, Jewish Voice for Peace Diana Buttu - Palestinian Lawyer Meron Rapoport - Editor, Local Call Yumna Patel - Palestine News Director, Mondoweiss On our radar: Israeli politicians are calling for the transfer of...

Freedom of expression is under the gun in the Land of the Free. We look at what media in the United States is missing in Israel’s war on Gaza - and why it matters. Contributors: Noura Erakat - Associate Professor, Rutgers University Abdallah Fayyad - Journalist; Former Member, Boston Globe Editorial Board Alex Kane - Senior Reporter, Jewish Currents Jack Mirkinson - Acting Senior Editor, The Natio...

After three weeks of a punishing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel is still refusing to allow international journalists in. News outlets and audiences are entirely reliant on local Palestinian reporters, who risk their lives to provide a window into the war. Contributors: Tal Schneider - political and diplomatic correspondent, Times of Israel Nathan Thrall - author of A Day in the Life of Abed S...

After three weeks of punishing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel is still refusing to allow international journalists in. News outlets and audiences are entirely reliant on local Palestinian reporters, who risk their lives to provide a window into the war. Contributors: Mouin Rabbani - Co-editor, Jadaliyya Omar Shakir - Human Rights Watch, Israel and Palestine director Yara Eid - Gazan journalis...

Two weeks into Israel’s war on Gaza, what the world is witnessing - from Israeli leaders' racist and genocidal rhetoric to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians - bears the hallmarks of a historic crime. This episode looks at how the media are responding - in Israel and beyond. Contributors: Neve Gordon - professor of international law and human rights, Queen Mary University Tariq Kenney-Shawa...

What we are seeing in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel has no precedent - the barbarism, the talk of vengeance, the war crimes. And the signs, all too familiar ones, of journalists succumbing to the pressures under the powers that be. In this special episode, we delve into the news coverage of the war in Palestine and Israel. We examine the narratives that have emerged since Hamas’s surprise att...

With a week to go until elections in Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party has used its control of the public broadcaster to drown out opposition voices and push its anti-European Union, anti-migrant messaging. Contributors: Jan Cienski - Senior Policy Editor, Politico Europe Paulina Lenik - Assistant Professor, Kozminski University Anita Prazmowska - Professor in International History, LSE Woj...

The resignation of 92-year-old media magnate Rupert Murdoch has set in motion the long-awaited succession of his empire. What effect will his son Lachlan’s leadership have on media - and politics - worldwide? Contributors: Kerry Flynn - Media Reporter, Axios Des Freedman - Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London Matt Gertz - Senior Fellow, Media Matters for America Paddy Manning - Author, The...

As the residents of the city of Derna count their dead, authorities in eastern Libya expel news crews from the city and evade scrutiny of their role in the disaster. Contributors: Elham Saudi - Co-founder & director, Lawyers for Justice in Libya Sami Zaptia - Editor-in-chief, Libya Herald Anas El Gomati - Director, Sadeq Institute On our radar: Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch announced his resignation...

Saudi Arabia’s massive spending on sport is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s strategy to diversify the petrostate’s economy and re-shape its brand. Contributors: Abdullah Al-Arian - Author, Football in the Middle East Gregg Carlstrom - Middle East Correspondent, The Economist Kristin Diwan - Senior Research Scholar, The Arab Gulf States Institute Rayhan Uddin - Journalist, Middle East Ey...

Politicians have long had a tendency to frame the past in a way that suits their political agenda in the present and the Holocaust is no different. In this special episode of The Listening Post, Johanna Hoes reports on historical revisionism in Poland; the governing right-wing Law and Justice party’s attempts to portray all Polish people as heroes or victims while concealing an uncomfortable truth...

A military takeover in Niger as the Kremlin and Russian mercenaries lurk on the sidelines and the airwaves. But would Russia be any less exploitative than Niger’s old colonial masters? Contributors: Alexis Akwagyiram - Managing editor, Semafor Africa Mathieu Oliver - Journalist, Jeune Afrique Aanu Adeoye - West Africa correspondent, Financial Times Delina Goxho - Security analyst On our radar: Chi...

A viral video revealing a shocking case of sexual assault has put the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on the radar and shed light on a place that the mainstream media has paid scant attention to. Contributors: Anubha Bhonsle - founder, Newsworthy Samrat Choudhury - journalist and author, Northeast India: A Political History Patricia Mukhim - editor, The Shillong Times Sushant Singh - consulti...

For the first time in 63 years, Hollywood actors have joined writers in a double strike against studio powerhouses, demanding better pay, fairer working conditions, and protections from present and future AI threats. Contributors: Miranda Banks - Media professor, Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television Daheli Hall - Writer and actor Meg James - Senior entertainment writer, Los...

The United States-China relationship is a complex one. Beneath the diplomatic niceties lies deep mutual suspicion - two governments fully engaged in a bigger battle of narratives. Contributors: Jiayang Fan - staff writer, The New Yorker Brian Hioe - editor, New Bloom Magazine James Palmer - deputy editor, Foreign Policy On our radar: In the United Kingdom, the BBC is in a state of turmoil after a...

In the aftermath of one of the worst Israeli military attacks on the occupied West Bank in 20 years, the Israeli government takes issue with the global media’s coverage of the violence. Contributors: Amjad Iraqi - Senior editor, +972 Magazine Gil Hoffman - Executive director, HonestReporting Sarit Michaeli - International advocacy officer, B'Tselem Tariq Kenney-Shawa - Journalist and US policy fel...

Analysts have been deciphering the Putin-Prigozhin power struggle; how it played out and what’s next for Russian politics and the war in Ukraine. Contributors: Ian Garner - Author, Z Generation Eilish Hart - Editor, Meduza in English Neil Hauer - Journalist Leonid Ragozin - Freelance journalist On our radar: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been hyping his Saudi megaproject in the desert. Prod...

The most recent tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea - a boat of 750 refugees capsizing off Greece - has shed light on the European Union’s anti-immigration policies, the many media outlets reinforcing that message and the few independent ones that push back on the official narrative. Contributors: Giorgos Christides - journalist Andrew Peter Geddes - professor of migration studies, European Universit...

In death, as in life, Silvio Berlusconi dominates the headlines. He was a man whose legacy across media, popular culture and politics is not confined just to Italy. Contributors: Roberto D’Alimonte - professor, LUISS Guido Carli University Serena Danna - deputy director, Open Paolo Gerbaudo - reader in digital politics, King’s College London Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli - Milan correspondent, Financi...

Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) have quickly turned from the excited to the apocalyptic. Are warnings that AI could pose an existential threat valid, or do they distract from the real danger AI is already causing? Contributors: Charlie Beckett - head, Polis LSE JournalismAI Project Yoshua Bengio - professor of computer science, University of Montreal Sarah Myers West - director, AI...

The acclaimed HBO TV series Succession immersed viewers in the world of the Roys, a family fighting for control of their elderly father’s media empire. Art imitates life, and as the series - which was partly, at times largely, based on the Murdochs - winds down, we examine what the hit show tells us about the dangers of corporate media. Contributors: Paddy Manning - Author, The Successor: The High...