The Complicit Lens

“This important book shows how America’s mainstream media has served as Israel’s principal propaganda arm in the US since October 7. If it had acted responsibly and truthfully this genocide would have been shut down long ago.” —John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago ""How has the debate in the United States over Israel’s devastation of Gaza fixated not on Washington’s bipartisan support for a campaign of dislocation, starvation and extermination, but on whether universities have done enough to suppress the speech of students who oppose it? Media scholar Robin Andersen . . . makes an overwhelming case that US corporate media’s response to genocide has been not resistance, but complicity."" —Jim Naureckas, Editor at FAIR ""A distinguished scholar, Andersen masterfully breaks down complex media distortions, revealing how headlines often enable the empire's crimes. Essential reading for anyone seeking truth and clarity amid media chaos."" —Nolan Higdon, University of California, Santa Cruz, publisher of The Gaslight Gazette on Substack , and The Disinfo Detox Podcast, Host ""This much-needed book documents the lies, omissions, distortions and biases that characterize Western media coverage of the genocide in Gaza. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to make sense of the legacy media's complicity in genocide and a powerful reminder of why change is long overdue."" —Des Freedman, Professor of Media and Communications, Co-Director, Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, University of London ""Robin Andersen's urgently written book helps us understand how our perception of a genocide—largely taking place in the open—has been obscured and warped by the forces perpetrating it, into a kind of vanishing point, where we are asked to deny what our eyes are telling us and question our own connection to reality."" —Jeffrey St Clair, co-editor, CounterPunch ""Andersen records the acts of silence, denial, and active participation of the US establishment in the face of the overwhelming evidence of death, destruction, and starvation being live-streamed by Palestinian journalists and citizens . . . It will serve as evidence when, as they invariably will be, these institutions and individuals will be tried for war crimes."" —Jyotsna Kapur ""The Complicit Lens exposes how mainstream media outlets sanitize Israeli war crimes while Palestinian journalists provide the eyewitness record of genocide. A vital map of media complicity and colonial power."" —Dave Reed, publisher, Mondoweiss “A meticulously documented and timely analysis of one of the most crucial issues of our times . . . Andersen writes with clarity and incisiveness about things that should alarm us all and deserve not only far more attention, but action.” —Mickey Huff “These pages are startling. Reading this material in one analytical text is essential—it’s eye opening and devastating to see the magnitude of bias and misinformation.” —Tami Gold “Important and highly timely book . . . shows how corporate media provide cover for Israel even as legal scholars and international courts document Israel’s campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.” —Janice Haaken