Independent journalists you can rely on to tell the truth and dispel legacy media's fog of war
As Israel edges into a full-scale ground assault on besieged Gaza to achieve its ethnic-cleansing endgame, there are journalists beyond the corporate pale giving an undistorted view of events.
The violence of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine has now become so obviously genocidal that attempts by Western governments and media to portray it as a legitimate right of defence can no longer be easily sustained.
There have been over 7000 people killed in Gaza by Israeli bombs since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israeli military bases and settlements, which left an estimated 1400 dead.
Yesterday (Thursday, October 26) US President Joe Biden said he believed the official figures of fatalities released by Palestinian health authorities were inflated. Increasing, it doesn’t matter to people what Biden believes.
What people are seeing posted on social media daily from Gaza is so much at odds with what legacy media outlets are reporting and what Western leaders are saying that their credibility is being deeply eroded in the eyes of the public.
News outlets’ double standards and a failure to call out a clear genocidal policy of siege and indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Gaza, has betrayed an editorial bias, moral hypocrisy and an inability to hold power to account.
As plans for a ground assault by Israeli forces near completion, Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians - most of them refugees and over half of them children - face the probability of being displaced into the Sinai desert in Egypt.
Western leaders and a compliant media remain largely silent, with editors unable or unwilling to scream genocide or ethnic cleansing in any headlines displayed over the past two weeks.
Israel’s actions risk a broader conflict in the Middle East, with US carrier strike groups being deployed to the region to ensure Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah or any other regional power does not attempt to hinder the Gaza operation.
The Pentagon has said US troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria over the past week. Biden has warned Iran against targeting US forces as an additional 900 troops are sent to the region.
Overt forms of censorship have increased since Hamas’ October 7 attack. It has including a recent social media crack down.
On Thursday, Eye On Palestine, an important news page with over six million followers, was completely removed by Instagram from its platform. The page had published on-the-ground footage of Gazans being attacked by the Israeli military.
It has also been reported by Axios that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken two weeks ago asked the Qatari government to “change its relationship with Hamas” by ensuring Al Jazeera “dialled down the volume” on its reporting on Gaza.
Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government and, although it operates independently, Western critics accuse its coverage of reflecting Qatari foreign policy.
Reporting from the frontline remains extremely dangerous. Israel has killed at least 27 journalists in Gaza and at the Lebanese border so far, according to the latest figures released by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Thursday Israeli war planes also killed the wife, son and grandson of Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, during a raid targeting the Nuseirat refugee camp.
As Israel, in partnership with the US, prepares for a long and bitter ground assault, expect a fog of war to descend on Gaza thicker and more treacherous than before.
However, there are some exceptional journalists out there committed to getting the truth out. In Context has put together a list of those you should definitely think about following during the horror of this important period in history.
The Grayzone
Although other journalists have covered this beat longer, the two journalists at the fore of The Grayzone, Aaron Maté and Max Blumenthal, have written extensively on the conflict for over a decade.
On their YouTube broadcasts, the pair present searing critiques of current affairs issues and international news events as these unfold.
They bring a notable degree of energy and intellect, while both journalists’ Jewish heritage brings a directness of criticism and an intimate understanding of the Zionist project.
Aaron Maté, son of celebrated author Hungarian-Canadian Dr Gabor Maté, hosts the news show Pushback for The Grayzone, as well as Useful Idiots with Katie Halper. He writes regularly for The Nation. Blumenthal has written several books, most notably Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.
The platform also has an impressive team of up-and-coming correspondents, including Wyatt Reed, Kit Klarenberg and Anya Parampil. Examples of their recent coverage of the Gaza onslaught can be accessed by clicking on their names.
Chris Hedges, The Chris Hedges Report
Veteran journalist Chris Hedges has covered several warzones in his time within mainstream media, including a decade as the New York Times news bureau chief in the Middle East, where he reported on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Hedges was ousted from that role for his critical stand against the second Iraq war, receiving a written warning for supposedly compromising the editorial impartiality of the paper after he pointed to the invasion’s false pretexts.
He has since written several books and established himself as a highly respected independent journalist and commentator. His books include The Greatest Evil is War and Losing Moses Along the Way.
Hedges’ profile got a boost with his RT show On Contact before the network closed its US operation at the beginning of the Ukraine war. The entire series has been wiped off YouTube.
The Chris Hedges Report is hosted by The Real News Network on YouTube and can be watched live every Friday at 12pm (US ET). His work is also featured on Substack and his writings can also be found on ScheerPost.
Hedges’ perspective as a journalist is layered and uniquely philosophical, coming from a Christian liberational tradition. He is fearless, immensely articulate and his writings have an enriching historical depth. A recent example of his reporting on Gaza can be found here.
Jonathan Cook
Jonathan Cook has been an independent journalist since 2001 and since then has accumulated an impressive body of work on Palestine and Israel.
The former Guardian staffer was based in Nazareth for 20 years, before returning to the UK in 2021.
In 2011 Jonathan was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. The judges’ citation read: “Jonathan Cook’s work on Palestine and Israel, especially his de-coding of official propaganda and his outstanding analysis of events often obfuscated in the mainstream, has made him one of the reliable truth-tellers in the Middle East.”
He is the author of three books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State, Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair.
On his popular Substack page he has been particularly scathing in his commentary on Western media’s portrayal of the Gaza genocide.
Declassified, Matt Kennard
Matt Kennard is an author and chief investigator at Declassified UK. He was a fellow and then director at the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London. A former Financial Times journalist, Kennard has been at the cutting-edge of investigative reporting in the UK, delving into the murky world of its security state.
He co-founded Declassified with author and historian Mark Curtis in 2019 and has since then assembled an impressive team of investigative reporters.
Declassified features a Middle East section and sends out monthly newsletter.
Kennard has focused almost exclusively on Gaza and Palestine since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli military and settlements. Declassified’s scrutiny of UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide has been notable.
Mint Press
Mint Press, established by Mnar Adley in 2012, has faced significant social media censorship pressure, but remains a popular source of alternative news coverage. It has focused heavily Gaza over the past two weeks.
On Friday, October 27, Instagram removed Adley’s recent video breaking down war crimes committed by Israel so far in Gaza, citing a violation of community guidelines of “supporting dangerous individuals”.
The news team, including Alan McLeod and Dan Cohen, offers excellent fresh news angles, investigative pieces, documentaries and interviews across their multimedia platforms.
Norman Finkelstein
Not many people having dedicated the time and effort into studying, publishing and advocating for Palestinian rights as New York academic Norman Finkelstein.
He has spent the last 40 years speaking out against the Israeli occupation at much personal cost, losing academic positions and facing marginalisation for his outspokenness. Finkelstein’s humanity shines through his work, sometimes with a raging anger, other times with a poignant, raw honesty.
A clip of him speaking on a university campus went viral years ago, where he tells Zionists to shut-up as he recounts the suffering of his parents and extermination of all their family members at the hands of the Nazis, chastising a “crocodile-teared’ student for using their martyrdom to justify the oppression of Palestinians.
Finkelstein is often featured in interviews with the journalists mentioned here, but he has his own Substack. His extensive body of written work is very much worth exploring. His books include The Holocaust Industry; Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Consortium News
Established by the renowned US journalist Robert Parry in 2005, Consortium News’ coverage of Israel-Palestine has been consistently top class over the past two decades.
Its present editor-in-chief Joe Lauria - an veteran journalist ousted from the Canadian news group he worked for over his objections to the second Iraq War – has ensured extensive coverage of the Gaza onslaught, with stories written by many of the journalists mentioned here, as well as a number of regular CN contributors.
Abby Martin
Abby Martin remains a high-profile voice in alternative media and is a passionate advocate of Palestinian rights. Beginning her career by founding the citizen journalism project Media Roots, Martin’s profile rose significantly as the host of RT America’s Breaking the Set, from 2012-2015.
She then launched the Empire Files series and in 2019 and released the film documentary, Gaza Fights for Freedom. The documentary has been screened in selected cinemas in the US and across the world over the past few weeks.
Check her social media for snippets of news coming out of Gaza and the Palestinian occupied territories.
System Update, Glen Greenwald
Co-founder of The Intercept and a former Guardian journalist, Glen Greenwald is one of the most high-profile independent journalists out there. A former US lawyer, he has focused much of his attention of First Amendment issues and the US surveillance state.
His coverage of Israel-Palestine on his System Update show live on Rumble and posted on his YouTube channel has been excellent over the past number of weeks. Greenwald is particularly good at critiquing US government foreign policy and profiling those overseeing its implementation.
The Mother of All Talk shows, George Galloway
Former British MP George Galloway has been a passionate advocate for Palestine, as well as an anti-war activist, for decades. He hosts The Mother of All Talk Shows on Rumble and his guests include a broad array of academic and journalistic voices usually excluded from mainstream media.
Caitlin Johnson
Australia’s Caitlin Johnson has more of a handle on US politics than many US-based journalists and her voice reaches far and wide.
The artist and writer presents pertinent musings and cogent political commentary daily. Her voice is unrestrained by journalistic convention and her writing is characterized by a mix of literary skill, humour and anti-imperialist polemics.
Local sources of news
Aotearoa Liberation League
Pere and Samah Huriwai-Seger at the Aotearoa Liberation League offer analysis and superbly-produced educational video clips on their website and social media platforms. Take a look at this one dealing with the Gaza genocide and giving historical context to the conflict. Their perspective is clearly articulated and ardently anti-colonial.
1 of 200.nz Podcast
You can also check in with popular weekly podcast 1of200.nz to hear the types of views and analysis usually excluded from mainstream media.
Created and run by Kyle Church, Philip Nannestad and Branko Marcetic, the independent media group’s popular, well-produced podcast features experts, advocates and writers offering critiques of corporate power, media, culture and politics.
This list is far from exhaustive, so please leave your own suggestions in the comments section below.
thank you for these links. i will be busy catching up with some of them. i would like to share one of my favourite site for world affairs. it is in depth analysis rather than news so not for the shortened time spanners. https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/