How to Sell a Genocide The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of death and mass devastation shook the world, and explicit statements of genocide from Israeli leaders foreshadowed the scale of the horrors to come. But the American media were quick to downplay the emerging extermination campaign, gloss it over, and repackage it under the glamorous “war on terror.”How ​​to Market Genocide is a sweeping indictment of the role of major American media in enabling—and at times directly abetting—one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in recent memory. Johnson reveals how major media outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC have systematically sugarcoated Israeli war crimes, obscured the pivotal role of the United States, and dehumanized the Palestinian people.Drawing on in-depth and original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanisms of propaganda, ranging from selective empathy, strategic neglect, outright racism, and the repetition of state-sponsored lies, to the demonization of humanitarian workers and dishonest media coverage of university protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide would not have occurred without the active and ongoing complicity of the American media.