The Complicit Lens
US Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza
Format:Paperback
Publisher:OR Books
Publishing:7th May '26
£12.99
This title is due to be published on 7th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

A media scholar critically examines how US establishment media ran interference for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with reporting that called the Flour Massacre “aid-related deaths,” and the Tent Massacre a “tragic mistake.” Over eight months, media coverage aligned with Israeli military narratives, condoning Israeli war crimes and the massacres of Palestinians as the world responded in outrage.
The Complicit Lens scrutinizes US media's portrayal of Israel’s war on Gaza post-October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, contrasting it with social media reports and international news coverage. It reveals how reporting mystified Israeli bombings, used passive language to deflect blame, and repeated Israeli talking points. The analysis identifies consistent war tropes and atrocity propaganda—beheaded babies and mass rape—used to justify Israeli actions and obscure culpability. Israeli violence was presented as defensive and justified, either by the October 7 attacks, or by claims that Israel was targeting Hamas fighters and commanders not civilians. Later reporting included false claims that war crimes and massacres were mistakes or accidents.
The book documents the targeted killings of journalists and aid workers, underreported in US media, and critiques the editorial censorship that avoided terms like "genocide" and "massacre" for Palestinian deaths. As global protests against the Gaza genocide rose, the book also analyzes the biased media portrayal of these uprisings, particularly those led by young people and Jewish organizations. Examining specific incidents and language, the book exposes how media coverage facilitated the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“This important book shows how America’s mainstream media has served as Israel’s principal propaganda arm in the US since October 7. If it had acted responsibly and truthfully this genocide would have been shut down long ago.”
—John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago
"How has the debate in the United States over Israel’s devastation of Gaza fixated not on Washington’s bipartisan support for a campaign of dislocation, starvation and extermination, but on whether universities have done enough to suppress the speech of students who oppose it? Media scholar Robin Andersen . . . makes an overwhelming case that US corporate media’s response to genocide has been not resistance, but complicity."
—Jim Naureckas, Editor at FAIR
"A distinguished scholar, Andersen masterfully breaks down complex media distortions, revealing how headlines often enable the empire's crimes. Essential reading for anyone seeking truth and clarity amid media chaos."
—Nolan Higdon, University of California, Santa Cruz, publisher of The Gaslight Gazette on Substack , and The Disinfo Detox Podcast, Host
"This much-needed book documents the lies, omissions, distortions and biases that characterize Western media coverage of the genocide in Gaza. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to make sense of the legacy media's complicity in genocide and a powerful reminder of why change is long overdue."
—Des Freedman, Professor of Media and Communications, Co-Director, Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, University of London
"Robin Andersen's urgently written book helps us understand how our perception of a genocide—largely taking place in the open—has been obscured and warped by the forces perpetrating it, into a kind of vanishing point, where we are asked to deny what our eyes are telling us and question our own connection to reality."
—Jeffrey St Clair, co-editor, CounterPunch
"Andersen records the acts of silence, denial, and active participation of the US establishment in the face of the overwhelming evidence of death, destruction, and starvation being live-streamed by Palestinian journalists and citizens . . . It will serve as evidence when, as they invariably will be, these institutions and individuals will be tried for war crimes."
—Jyotsna Kapur
"The Complicit Lens exposes how mainstream media outlets sanitize Israeli war crimes while Palestinian journalists provide the eyewitness record of genocide. A vital map of media complicity and colonial power."
—Dave Reed, publisher, Mondoweiss
“A meticulously documented and timely analysis of one of the most crucial issues of our times . . . Andersen writes with clarity and incisiveness about things that should alarm us all and deserve not only far more attention, but action.”
—Mickey Huff
“These pages are startling. Reading this material in one analytical text is essential—it’s eye opening and devastating to see the magnitude of bias and misinformation.”
—Tami Gold
“Important and highly timely book . . . shows how corporate media provide cover for Israel even as legal scholars and international courts document Israel’s campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”
—Janice Haaken
ISBN: 9781682196267
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
120 pages