OPINION
Incessant reporting on the build up to a presupposed attack has created reader/viewer fatigue and has taken our eyes off the real news
For weeks now the world has been gripped in a holding pattern waiting to see whether the U.S. is going to make good on President Trump’s promise to intervene if the Islamic Republic uses deadly force or executes protestors.
The regime has already done both, but somehow the story — which is now more than one month old — has morphed into nuclear negotiations (which was not even on the cards in this news cycle) all the while reports are trickling out of internet-blocked Iran that tens of thousands of people have been murdered.
But the attack? Still on the cards, apparently. Or not because of talks. Or, who knows anymore?
I live in the thick of it, in Jerusalem, where for weeks I have been fielding messages from friends, family and followers abroad about our wellbeing and asking, When will this attack take place?
Shrill headlines and news reports have given us a sense of “imminent” to “very imminent” to precise predictions of an attack tonight, tomorrow or this weekend. It already doesn’t matter which date was the presumed D-day because they’ve all come and gone.
In addition to this, analysts are offering divergent opinions. One of the popular reasons for why an attack hasn’t happened yet is that Trump is waiting for U.S. military build up in the region. Another one is that everyone is afraid this could trigger World War 3 or a nuclear holocaust.
But this has left citizens across the Middle East in a simmering pot of tensions as headlines continue to rage in the form of statements, questions and drama all using the same verbiage: “Tensions with Iran;” “Tensions with Iran?” And, “Escalation in tensions with Iran,” naturally.
At least be creative.
In any case, news consumers have moved on especially in the West where it snowed (eye roll). But even for those of us who need to find our shelters if the “tensions boil over,” it has fallen off of our ticking-time-bomb agenda.
At first we lived in fear. Some of my team asked if they should come to the office or work from home. Many packed a to-go bag for their bomb shelter and stacked their shoes at the front door in the event of an overnight siren.
Now, many of my friends have actually tuned out the news because it is monotonous, repetitive and feels, actually, false.
And herein lies the danger of irresponsible journalism.
We are truly facing a World War 3 type event and yet people in the Middle East have become blasé and have simply chosen to go on with their lives. The news of an imminent attack has become a joke. It reminds me of the overuse of the word when we were heavily reporting on an “imminent” deal to release the hostages and declare a ceasefire between Israel and a Hamas. Imminent dragged on for months, failed and left people bereft of hope while stacking up more trauma in their weary souls on all sides.
As journalists reporting on delicate and dangerous situations, we want to give ample and honest warning, but there is a fine line between caution and war mongering.
War mongering is addictive and keeps people coming back for more. Whether driven by ratings, financial gain or an expanded audience, war mongering blurs the lines of reality, objectivity and, ultimately, truth.
Obviously, politics and politicians play their own word games whether for tactical purposes or propaganda, as in the case of the Islamic regime.
But the job of the media is to cut through that subterfuge and report truth. How can anyone trust the media when outlets now merely parrot statements and roll out click-bait headlines while offering analysts who are repeatedly erroneous in their predictions?
We are training our audiences to live in a tizzy of adrenaline-fueled and cortisol spiking panic and apocalyptic expectations. Sadly, this makes normalcy boring and distorts our view of reality.
Normalizing wars and rumors of wars makes us crave headlines while also making us immune to actual wars, genocides and crimes against humanity.
In this case, it has caused us to forget the main story: that Iranians have been killed and are still being killed for protesting the regime’s iron grip and their destructive economic situation—the entire impetus for this news cycle.
We have done a disservice to the truth and have shifted focus from the mass murder of protestors (some unconfirmed reports are 70,000 dead)—the real news—to on-again off-again talks.
Iranians spray painted on walls and buildings, “Trump save us.”Yet any military action now is too late for the 20, 30, 70,000+ who were waiting for intervention before the slaughters that began on Jan. 8.
We are now a month beyond that—the beginning of severe crackdowns across Iran—and instead of that, the headlines are still racing from canceled talks to canceled flights to calls by government or their citizens to leave Iran to emergency weather conditions in America.
This whiplash of news has shaken trust in reports—a trust that is becoming more and more difficult to rebuild in these days of prolific media.