Key takeaways:
- People Magazine, one of the most popular and influential cultural magazines in the U.S., printed a story covering the living Israeli hostages’ return home, creating a false moral equivalence between them and Palestinian prisoners and leaving out key facts of the events that led to their kidnapping.
- The coverage of news events by pop culture magazines must meet basic standards of accuracy; otherwise, it risks misleading readers and normalizing disinformation.
People Magazine has been a consistent staple of American pop culture. As one of the most read and beloved cultural magazines, it is the trusted source for all celebrity and human-interest stories, connecting the average American to broader society.
But when a gossip magazine attempts to cover real news stories without any facts – or nuance – the readership gets a watered-down version of the truth. The result isn’t trustworthy journalism.
This is exactly what happened in a recent print version of People Magazine in “Israeli Hostages Released After Two Years as Palestinians Journey Home.” The half-page article attempted to cover the living Israeli hostages’ return home, but did little to ensure readers understood the atrocities they endured.
The context behind the kidnappings of Israeli hostages was virtually erased, replaced instead with a moral equivalency between them and the Palestinians who were “journeying home.” Why were these Palestinians being held in prisons during the war in the first place? Nowhere to be seen.
Israeli and Palestinian families who had worried about the fate of their loved ones were overwhelmed with emotion upon hearing the news.
For two years, Israeli families held their breath, hoping for the return of their loved ones who were unlawfully kidnapped from them. To state that both Palestinian prisoners’ families and the families of Israeli hostages were experiencing similar traumas is an appalling moral equivalency.
The oversimplification of the war’s outbreak reads as though the conflict were a neutral, even-handed exchange, and strips away the reality of violence and terror that defined these events in which 251 hostages were taken. And while People quotes the number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees being released, the total number of Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023, is entirely missing from the article. The average reader may be left with the understanding that only twenty hostages were taken on October 7th.
After two years of war over control of Gaza, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on Oct. 13.
The watering down of Hamas’ crimes on October 7th comes as no surprise, as the article defines the war as being one of “control of Gaza,” rather than a war against a brutal terrorist organization that committed crimes against humanity, as the IDF worked tirelessly to bring every hostage back home.
Nobody expects People Magazine to provide in-depth geopolitical coverage. And its audience isn’t necessarily au fait with the intricacies of the events surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. But that’s precisely why basic context and factual information are essential when readers are unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Unsurprisingly, the author, KC Baker, does not include Middle East history, Israel, or terrorism as her areas of expertise, which are listed on the website: Crime, the Climate Crisis, Human Interest, and Celebrities.
No matter their expertise, professional journalists nonetheless have a responsibility to provide readers with the essential context that such a story requires. Instead, we are treated to a subtle bias that is no less damaging than the overtly anti-Israel bias present in mainstream news media.
People Magazine has previous form in the immediate aftermath of October 7th. In one article, the magazine required readers to read 24 paragraphs before being exposed to the atrocities of the massacre.
People Magazine is not alone in the distortion of narratives and facts about Israel. The issue extends beyond pop culture and lifestyle, into food, travel, and other non-news publications. Condé Nast, the media conglomerate that owns Vogue and The New Yorker, has redrawn maps, calling Nazareth a Palestinian town – despite it very clearly being within Israel’s sovereign borders. Meanwhile, Bon Appétit has referred to 1960 Tulkarm as being in “Palestine,” despite it being under Jordanian control at the time.
These shifts in narrative subtly influence an unknowing and unassuming reader who takes what they read at face value, leaving misconceptions about history and geography unchallenged. When millions of readers encounter these narratives in trusted, glossy outlets, the cumulative effect shapes public perception, blurring the line between human-interest storytelling and factual reporting. Such omissions and distortions are not minor errors; they are carefully selected narratives that shape the understanding and perception of Israel in American society.
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