The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has been a humanitarian disaster for many Afghans and yet much of the Western media coverage has ignored the dark reality of 20 years of US-backed war. Here’s my interview this week with Melbourne’s Triple R Breakfasters radio show on the current reality in Afghanistan and the role of imperial…
Showing all posts tagged mainstream media
Rising Palestinian voices
My recent interview with Bay FM, a great community radio station in Byron Bay, Australia. The interviewer Fernando has constructed an interesting, podcast-style production on Israel/Palestine: BayFM 99.9 · Palestine Special with Mohammed & Muna El-Kurd and Antony Loewenstein 14.06.21
Roles and responsibilities of a journalist
After the recent violence in Palestine and Israel, Australian, Muslim community network Clued TV was involved in raising funds to help the people of Palestine. I was interviewed about my work as a journalist. Segment starts at 2 hours 56 seconds:
Shaping and skewing coverage of Israel/Palestine
I participated in this event earlier in the week on the role and responsibility of the media when reporting on Israel/Palestine. It was organised by the UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion and UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Sydney, Australia. Over 250 people attended the event via Zoom: How does the…
Challenging those self-serving media narratives since 9/11
My book review in yesterday’s Weekend Australian newspaper:… In The Operators, a great book on the war in Afghanistan, the American journalist Michael Hastings is scathing of reporters who spend their lives praising generals and socialising with them. Hastings exposed the arrogance and childish antics of the then head of US operations in Afghanistan, Stanley…
How do we escape our filter bubbles?
We live in an age of filter bubbles. I’ve been commissioned by Germany’s Goethe Institute to discuss these issues online for the next month alongside Austrian journalist Robert Misik. Here’s the first entry that is distributed in 160 nations around the world (here’s the German version): Once upon a time there were hopes that the…
The wonder, anger and occupation of Jerusalem
My essay in The National newspaper about the city of Jerusalem: House demolitions occur regularly in East Jerusalem, well away from the tourist path. According to the United Nations, Israel destroyed 190 Palestinian homes in 2016 and displaced thousands of people. It was the highest figure since 2000. I’ve witnessed Palestinian families thrown out of…
US magazine Truthout picks Disaster Capitalism and extracts its introduction
US magazine Truthout has picked my book Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe… as its “Progressive Pick” (AKA book of the moment). Here’s an extract from the introductory chapter: “Sometimes we win the skirmishes, but the war continues.” — Rebecca Solnit, 2011 Back in 1972 Jørgen Randers, today the professor of climate strategy at…
How does the media drive xenophobia?
In the age of Donald Trump and rabid nationalism, I was recently asked to write a short essay by US-based publication World Policy Journal on the role of journalists and media in creating and fanning xenophobia:… Big Question
What Palestine Ltd tells us about disaster capitalism in Palestine/Israel
My following review appears in the US publication Mondoweiss: Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory… (I.B. Taurus), by… Toufic Haddad The Israeli media barely covers Palestine. Although many local, corporate outlets have “Arab affairs” correspondents, a faintly colonial position that reeks of paternalism, 99.9 percent of Jewish journalists live in Israel proper (or the…