[UPDATED] Why does MSN News spread anti-Semitic propaganda?

 

 

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By Jon Sutz, Editor, SaveTheWest.com

Since at least August of 2014, Microsoft Network News (“MSN News”) has been publishing an array of vicious anti-Israel propaganda and libels, disguised as “news,” most of which are rooted in anti-Semitism.

This special report for SaveTheWest.com has been produced to:

• Document some of these incidents

• Ask MSN News (a) why it features such items, and (b) why it features no similarly-inflammatory items about the acts of, and threats by the Islamist terror groups on Israel’s borders, which are sworn to its destruction

For reference, we employ the “Three-Ds” definition of anti-Semitism, as developed by human rights activist Natan Sharansky. In summary, legitimate criticism of Israel is differentiated from anti-Semitism if it demonizes and/or delegitimizes the Jewish state, based on double-standards. Also, consider this definition of anti-Semitism by The European Forum on Antisemitism.

About MSN, MSN News and MSNBC

As of May 2015, the he Microsoft Network portal, MSN.com, was estimated by Quantcast to have 118 million monthly visitors, making it America’s fourth-most-visited site of any kind. Within the MSN portal, Microsoft also offers headlines from its news site, MSN News, covering an array of features from various content areas, including world and national items, sports, the economy, politics, etc. In general, MSN News acts as a curator, selecting items from across the Internet – presumably because it determines them to be credible, and of interest to its readers.

MSN News users can also create custom news feeds covering they topics in which they are most interested, and have these items delivered to their computers and portable devices. This feature, as all others, is available in dozens of languages (see bottom of this page).

In August 2013, as it was about to unveil its Windows 8 Phone, Microsoft announced that it would be developing a series of apps for it, including this customizable news feed feature.

MSN News is also of a much larger information “ecosystem,” a major component of which is MSNBC, the cable news and Web news partnership between Microsoft and NBC News.

Between all these appendages, Microsoft’s ventures in news play a powerful role in shaping public perceptions about important issues.

My discovery of MSN News’s anti-Israel “jihad”

In August 2014, I bought a Windows Phone, and picked “Israel” as one of the topics that I wanted to include in my news feed. At any given time, eight items are displayed in this and other user-defined news feeds.

Upon first glance, these eight items seemed to consist of items curated from major journalism sources (eg Reuters, etc.). On closer look however, I began to notice that one or more of those eight items were not news, but were hysterical editorial screeds against Israel, and particularly, the Israel Defense Force. Some were curated from well-known (and well-funded) anti-Israel propaganda sites. Others, however, are personal blogs, residing at the Internet’s most fetid, feverish, swampy edges.

I was so shocked by what I observed that I began taking pictures of the phone’s display with a digital camera.

Three examples

The following are items that I captured from my Windows phone between March 28 and April 9, 2015:

(1) “Israel: A Force of Pure Evil”

MSN News published this “news” item, written by Stephen Lendman of “The People’s Voice” blog, on April 9th, 2015. You’ve never heard of “The People’s Voice”? Neither had I. An excerpt of this screed:

Israel from inception threatened regional peace and stability. Under Netanyahu and likeminded fascist thugs, it threatens humanity. […]

(Netanyahu is) a known serial liar. He prefers belligerence over diplomacy. He’s waging permanent war on Palestine. He threatens Lebanon. He’ll do virtually anything to achieve unchallenged regional dominance. He partners in Obama’s war on Syria. He launched multiple air attacks since conflict began in March 2011 – naked aggression by any standard. He actively aids Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups against Assad’s government.

Continue here.

So what exactly is “The People’s Voice”? It is a private blog that is apparently all written and edited by one person, Stephen Lendman, who claims to speak for “the people.” Given that grandiose stance, it’s not terribly surprising that while Lendman views Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel as the root of all evil, he wrote a loving tribute to one of the Western hemisphere’s most brutal, murderous dictators, Fidel Castro – another propagandist who claimed to speak for “the people”:

Fidel is a living legend – bigger than life, remarkable by any standard, a hero to Cubans and millions worldwide. He recovered from serious illness that nearly took him. His inner strength and redoubtable spirit saved him. He’s an inspiration to us all.

Why would MSN News feature such unhinged, incendiary, libelous screeds against Israel from an obscure, unknown one-person blog, alongside actual news items?

And why would it match this screed with such an inflammatory picture — which is unsourced — and may be yet another Gaza toddler who was killed by Hamas, yet falsely blamed on Israel, like the one at right?  And these children? And these?

Also, this detailed analysis by scholar Richard Landes documents how Hamas murders Gaza children, for the specific purpose of posing them for propaganda purposes, which bloggers then spread through the Internet ecosystem, to create inflammatory, false narratives – some of which are picked up by major “news” organizations.

But that’s not the only time MSN News has run items by “The People’s Voice”; read on.

(2) “Israel Uses Lethal Force Against Palestinian Children”

MSN News featured this item, also written by Stephen Lendman at “The People’s Voice,” on April 3, 2015. Excerpts:

It’s longstanding Israel practice – shooting defenseless Palestinian children in cold blood. Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) explains what’s virtually unreported in the West. […]

In the past three months, Israeli goon squads injured 258 West Bank Palestinians. Between March 10 and 16 alone, 18 Palestinians were shot with live ammunition – including nine children. Since 2000, Israeli goon squads murdered nearly 9,000 Palestinians – including about 1,900 children.

Accountability is entirely absent. Children too young to understand what’s happening are targeted.

Six-year-olds are shot. Israeli soldiers murdered 10-year-old Khalil Mohammad Ahmad al-Anati meters from his home while at play.

Wow.

So what is this Defence for Children International-Palestine to whom Lendman refers? It is a vicious anti-Israel propaganda machine, and has been exposed as such by The Committee for Accuracy in Middle Eastern Reporting in America (CAMERA), NGO-Monitor, and Elder of Ziyon – the latter of which revealed that the “children” whom DCI-P alleged were “murdered” by Israel include hardcore terrorists, including the fresh-faced young man at right. Doesn’t he remind you of a Muslim version of Richie Cunningham, of “Happy Days” fame?

(3) “Ole Israel Has Become A Serious Problem That We Need To Address”

MSN News featured this item, written by Eric L. Wattree for a website called “ThyBlackMan.com” on March 28, 2015 – the same day it was posted: Excerpts:

(T)he way that the State of Israel was created in 1948 set into motion a policy of Manifest Destiny 2, and then it was shoved down the throats of the indigenous people in the region. […]

As badly as the German people treated the Jews, why didn’t they just break off a piece of Germany and give it to the Jewish people? I’ll tell you why, because Germany is a White nation, so they felt that it was easier to simply go and TAKE a piece of land from “THOSE” non-White Arabs, and get the Jews out of our hair. […]

Let’s destroy Israel’s nuclear arms arsenal […]

Israel has been getting a pass by the world as a result of the atrocities committed against Jews during WWII, but enough is enough. […] Israeli spying on the United States, and conspiring with irresponsible individuals within our own government to undermine United States interests, strongly suggest that it’s time to rein Israel in, because we’ve created a monster. There’s no such thing as an ally that you can’t trust.

Wow. Let’s examine just a few of the ways that this “news” item is unhinged, and filled with anti-Semitic libels:

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  Regarding “Manifest Destiny” (description) there is only one group in the Middle East that’s pursuing such a policy, and it’s called ISIS, which is gobbling up one region after another. Strangely, Mr. Wattree makes no mention of that – even though CNN produced a detailed piece on the issue on March 20 – eight days before this screed was published. He also makes no mention of this piece, by NBC News, on June 23, 2014 – nearly a year before he published his screed.

• Regarding where Jews converged after WWII, they went back to their ancestral homeland, which is called “Israel.” Contrary to Wattree’s assertion, the Jews are the indigenous people of the region, having existed on the land that is now called “Israel”and “Palestine” for nearly 2,000 years before the advent of Islam.

• The notion of a “Jewish conspiracy” to take over our government and make it do things against the interests of America (or any sovereign government) is standard-issue anti-Semitism.

Is Wattree ignorant of these basic facts – or did he just choose to deny them, in the hopes that his audience is unaware of them either?

That question is actually far more appropriately directed to the decision-maker at MSN News, who found this anti-Semitic screed, on the same day it was published, at a website that I would speculate that fewer than .001% of Americans had ever heard of — and decided it was worthy of posting as one of its eight “news” items, to be spread through the global MSN information ecosystem.

The questions we posed to MSN News – and its response

Given all the facts contained in this report, it is reasonable to ask:

(1) Why does MSN News scour the fetid, feverish bowels of the Internet in order to root out feature such anti-Semitic, libelous, incendiary screeds as the items featured in this report, on its Israel news feed?

(2) If MSN News is willing to this kind of anti-Semitism, especially that which focuses on (real or false) child victims, why does it not devote similar effort to find and publish stories about Jewish children who were deliberately targeted and maimed/murdered by Muslim extremists? One recent example: Chaya Zissel Braun, the 3-month-old American baby who was murdered in a terror attack in Israel.

(3) Is there anything about this issue that we have not presented accurately, or in its complete or correct context, that you feel should be corrected before this report is published at SaveTheWest.com?

These questions, and this entire article, were submitted to Microsoft via its designated PR firm, Waggener Edstrom Communications. The official response:

“Microsoft will not be providing comment.”

If you’d like to make your voice known to Microsoft

If you would like to make Microsoft aware of your thoughts concerning the material contained in this report:

Microsoft Corporation
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA, 98052
425-882-8080

Also, if you’re a Microsoft investor, you can contact its Investor Relations division at:

msft@microsoft.com
800-285-7772

You might also make note of these statements by Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, regarding corporate and employee ethics:

• “Our customers and society expect us to maximize the value of technology while also preserving the values that are timeless. Microsoft’s commitments to corporate citizenship help us meet these expectations.” (Source)

• “Our success depends on you. We set high ethical standards at Microsoft and we expect every employee to live up to those standards. Complying with the law and company policies is the first and most important job of every Microsoft employee. A momentary lapse in judgment by a single employee has the potential to erode the value and the trust we bring to customers. As a Microsoft employee, you are expected to maintain a commitment to high ethical standards and conduct Microsoft’s business with integrity.” (Source)

UPDATE August 14, 2015: After a brief respite, MSN News has resumed spreading anti-Semitic propaganda

The good news: Soon after this report was published on June 6, 2015, I received indications from several readers that they and their friends had written and called MSN and its shareholder relations department (see contact info above) to voice their outrage over what is documented herein.  Apparently it had a positive impact; since then, my daily monitoring of MSN News on my Windows Phone revealed not a single further instance of it publishing fever-swamp anti-Semitic propaganda as part of its Israel news feed.

The bad news: That period of restraint ended today, nine weeks later.

Today, amidst actual news stories concerning Israel (on the Israel news feed), I spotted the following:

Israel, Congress and the Iran Nuclear Agreement, by Robert Fantina, Counterpunch

In case you’ve never heard of it, Counterpunch is a legendary, notoriously anti-Western, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda site.  The ADL describes it as an “anti-Zionist radical left” publication.  CAMERA describes it as an “extremist anti-Israel web site.”  Numerous others have revealed Counterpunch’s hyper-screeds against Jews, Israel, America and (as in the case of Stephen Lendman of “The People’s Voice,” above), a virulent defender of murderous communist dictators.

That background is what caused me to be suspicious of what this “news” article contained, despite its seemingly innocuous headline. This “news” article, it turns out, contains one anti-Semitic libel after another.  A sampling, starting with the age-old libel, that Jews control Congress – and Jews in Congress are disloyal to the U.S.A.:

• “(M)any Democrats are faced with their worst nightmare: they have to either oppose a Democratic president, or oppose AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee). This is a serious dilemma. Oh, if only they just had to do what was best for the country!”

• “(T)he stranglehold that AIPAC has had over Congress and the White House…”

• “Within the halls of Congress, all sorts of political jockeying is said to be happening, with some senators, most notably New York’s Charles Schumer, awaiting until the deal had enough support to sustain a presidential veto, before announcing their opposition. This way, they can, most importantly, be true to the Israeli lobbies that finance them…”

And for good measure, Counterpunch also threw in a mullah-level incendiary libel against the USA, as well:

“(D)isarmament should start with the only nation on the planet to ever have used nuclear weapons, the United States, with a quick follow-up by the second most dangerous country in the world, Israel.”

Looks like MSN News gambled that nine weeks of refraining from publishing such anti-Semitic screeds as “news” would be good enough to placate readers of this blog.

Is it?  Only you and other readers of this blog can determine the answer to that question.

See the above contact information for how to make your voice known to Microsoft, if you disagree.

March 25, 2016: MSN News gives a platform to Nazi-like hate propaganda (again)

Although this page has not been updated very often, MSN News has continued to occasionally post anti-Semitic hate materials, though far less frequently than before our report.

Today, however, we have tangible evidence that its editors still plumb the most wretched bowels of the Internet to find and give a platform to some of the most vile items of anti-Semitism, which is what gave rise to our report in the first place.

The first paragraph from this “news” item is all you really need to see (though click the link if you dare, to further explore this hatred):

AIPAC, Israel and the U.S: an Unholy Alliance, by Robert Fantina, Counterpunch, March 25, 2016

The annual Israeli-lobby love fest is in full swing, the highlight of which may be the sight of most of the candidates for the highest office in the land groveling before their financial masters. The annual AIPAC (Apartheid Israel Political Affairs Committee; oops! That is, officially, the American Israel Political Affairs Committee) orgy always draws the United States president and every member of Congress worthy to be called a lackey for Israel, and their name is legion.

Think about that: In the entire galaxy of drooling anti-Semitic hysteria, have you ever seen anything that vile, that acidic, outside of a neo-Nazi hate site?  Of ISIS’s propaganda?  Of Hamas’s “educational” materials?

And yet, MSN News decided this anti-Semitic screed should be included in its daily roundup of eight Israel “news” items to deliver to its global audience.

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