Episode description

Hello! 

This week, New York Times Magazine contributing writer and repeat guest Rozina Ali talks with us about media coverage of the war in Israel and Gaza as well as the challenges faced by journalists, more than twenty of whom have been killed in the region over the past two weeks. We also discuss whether there has been a chilling of speech in the West, the history of suppressed expression when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and how all this may shake out in politics and public sentiment. 

In this episode, we ask: 

How accurate are the comparisons of this moment to 9/11, in terms of media suppression, Islamophobia, and our ability to parse complicated political issues? 

Does social media incentivize checking certain boxes around Israel-Palestine over moving dialogue forward? 

Why are U.S. elected officials so out of touch with public opinion? 

For more, see: 

* Retaliation within Israel (Crackdown on Freedom of Speech of Palestinian Citizens of Israel), on U.S. college campuses (A “McCarthyite Backlash” Against Pro-Palestine Speech), at the 92Y (92NY Pulls Event With Viet Thanh Nguyen Over Criticism of Israel), and more (A Surge in Suppression)

* A growing list of journalist casualties since October 7, from the Committee to Protect Journalists 

* Mona Chalabi’s visualization of deaths in the war versus New York Times coverage of those deaths

* Articles on the killings of synagogue president Samantha Woll in Detroit and of Muslim six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago 

* Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, interviewed by Piers Morgan

* Rozi’s Times Magazine profile of Rashida Tlaib, from March 2022 

* Our first episode with Rozina, from March 2021: Kimchi nationalism, Biden on immigration and foreign policy, and Desi identities 

* Plus, our episode with Viet Thanh Nguyen, from August 2020: Ethnic Studies, Revolutionary Politics, and the Third World Liberation Front

* A recent U.S. opinion poll on the war, from CBS News/YouGov (compared with lackluster support for a ceasefire in Congress)

* Last week’s episode with Amjad Iraqi, a policy analyst and Palestinian citizen of Israel: The siege in Gaza and Israel’s end game

If you’re a writer, journalist, or media worker who has faced retaliation for expressing your views on the war in Gaza, you can reach out to the National Writers Union for support by filling out this survey. 

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