Pixel Quackery: How Zionists Use the Enquirer to Manufacture Consent

Recently, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an article addressing the widespread criticism of Cincinnati Pride’s complicity with Zionist activists and pro-Israel corporations. The article, by Amber Hunt, presents a grotesquely one-sided and superficial image of this ongoing controversy, an image bordering on journalistic incompetence. Not only does Hunt make no attempt to seek out alternative or contestational views, but she merely repeats without challenge the innuendo, equivocation, and evidence-free claims of both Pride and the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. Cincinnati Socialists sees Hunt’s article as a textbook example of what Noam Chomsky and Edward Hermann famously called manufacturing consent, the process of undermining democratic discourse by disproportionately amplifying the views of the wealthy, powerful, and influential. We accuse the Enquirer of engaging in journalistic malpractice. We say that Hunt’s article is capitalist stenography, not journalism. 

The Enquirer article uncritically repeats Cincy Pride Director Benjamin Morano’s assertion that members of Pride’s staff have been “harassed” and “threatened,” but does not point out that Morano has provided no evidence of any harassment of anyone, much less threats of violence. In fact, Morano has failed to produce a single example of threatening or harassing speech directed towards his staff. Later in her article, Hunt quotes Jewish Federation of Cincinnati CEO Danielle Minson’s concerns that anti-Zionists at Pride “might use some verbal harassments that could be possibly antisemitic.” Again, Hunt does not challenge this bizarrely equivocal and hedged assertion. Again, Minson fails to explain the reasoning behind her concerns. The truth is, what Moreno and Minson (and by implication, Hunt) call “harassment” is likely nothing more than the very public-spirited fact-checking and investigative reporting on the part of Pride’s critics that the Enquirer itself ought to have done. In a democracy, people in positions of public trust are subject to public scrutiny, and their public actions and words are especially so. To call such scrutiny “harassment” is autocratic bullying itself. We demand that the Enquirer investigate Moreno and Minson’s accusations, and if they are indeed groundless, we insist that the only ethical route would be to condemn them.

Furthermore, the Enquirer made no effort to speak to the targets of the baseless accusations reproduced in Hunt’s article. In fact, it appears that—likely on advice of their legal teams—neither Cincy Pride nor the Jewish Federation refer to any of their targets by name. Nevertheless, to report only one side of a story is a violation of the most basic journalistic ethics, and to report only the loudest and most lavishly funded voices in any controversy is simply to engage in ruling-class propaganda. Cincinnati Socialists encourages honest Cincinnatians to investigate all of our statements on Palestine and Zionism and judge them on their factual merits. Our work is meticulously and multiply sourced. Everything we have said is based on the work of reputable professional journalists and scholars—in many cases Jewish and even Israeli historians. We stand by what we say, and instead of hurling vague and ad hominem accusations at our opponents, we strive to make rational arguments based on documented historic evidence. We unreservedly invite Amber Hunt to speak with us about any of our positions and to challenge us on anything we say that is deceitful or false. In the meantime, we applaud the infinitely more honest, ethical, and comprehensive journalism of venues such as CityBeat, and encourage the Enquirer to follow suit in their practices. The people of Cincinnati deserve better than the Enquirer’s unethical and dishonest Zionist propaganda. We urge all Cincinnatians to seek out the truth on their own and to hold the Enquirer to higher professional standards.