“Pro-Palestinian Protesters” vs. “Anti-Israel Agitators”: How Biased Media is Covering College Protests Differently.
“Law enforcement from coast to coast is being tasked with carrying out a complex choreography: How to protect the constitutional right to free speech, while navigating volatile and potentially unsafe social unrest.” –ABC News (Lean Left bias).
Across the United States in April and May, hundreds of college campuses saw pro-Palestinian protests emerge — some entirely peaceful, and others seemingly more violent — causing colleges and universities to shut down campus or, in the case of Columbia University, cancel its campus-wide commencement ceremony.
To understand how left and right media outlets covered the events differently, AllSides reviewed 18 news articles spanning the political spectrum to uncover types of media bias present in national coverage.
ABC News reported college students were protesting to call for “their colleges to divest of funds from Israeli military operations or companies benefitting from the war” in Gaza.
Sentiment on the right struck a much starker tone. Blaze Media (Right bias) said that “Hamas-endorsed radicals illegally camped outside Columbia University for more than a week, regurgitating genocidal rhetoric and demanding the institution divest from Israel.”
“Pro-Palestinian Protesters” vs. “Anti-Israel Agitators” – Outlets Describe Those Involved Differently
Outlets on the left are more likely to describe the protests with a pro-Palestinian slant. CNN (Lean Left bias) described those involved as “students protesting the monthslong assault on Gaza.” Similarly, “contagious pro-Palestinian demonstrations” is a phrase used to describe the protests by The Washington Post (Lean Left bias).
On the other hand, Fox News (Right bias) has consistently described protesters as “anti-Israel agitators” while The Post Millennial (Right bias) has coined the term “radical Gaza activists.” Blaze Media employed unsubstantiated claims that protesters are “Hamas-endorsed radicals” and “Pro-Hamas students.”
“The protesters at Columbia demonstrated that there are two factions of the protesters — there’s the pro-Hamas, and then there’s the really pro-Hamas.” – John Fetterman (D-PA). Reported in Breitbart (Right bias)
RELATED: ‘Anti-Israel Agitators’: Fox News Uses Unique Language to Describe Gaza Protesters
