Overview

As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But the US media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework.  How to Sell a Genocide is a thorough indictment of US corporate media's role in enabling—and, at times, directly inciting—one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel's war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people. Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonization of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, sustained complicity of the US media. All royalties from the book will be donated to the Middle East Children's Alliance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Adam H. Johnson ,  Noura Erakat
Publisher:   Pluto Press
Imprint:   Pluto Press
ISBN:  

9780745351650

ISBN 10:   0745351654
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   21 April 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. How the White House press corps helped the Biden administration distance itself from the horrors of Gaza 2. MSNBC, CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post double standards and who is allowed to be human 3. How The New York Times helped Israel militarize humanitarian workers, civilians, and doctors 4. Sunday Morning news shows, Morning Joe ,and how “Agenda Setting” TV news limited the debate to “how many Palestinian civilians should die” 5. “40 beheaded babies” and 72 hours that primed the public for months of war crimes 6. Ukrainians vs. Palestinians: a comparative analysis of selective solidarity in the journalist profession 7. The manufactured Ivy League “anti-semitism” congressional show trials of December 2023 and the smearing of campus protests in Spring 2024 8. Removing agency, natural disaster-izing mass killing, and covering documented war crimes like they are earthquakes Conclusion

Reviews

'How to Sell a Genocide vividly and meticulously demonstrates the power of narrative and the powers involved in shaping them... Through painstaking documentation over a 12-month period, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions constituted “Moats of Rationalization” that primed Western audiences for genocide.' -- Noura Erakat, Human rights attorney and author of <i>Justice For Some</i>

Author Information

Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in The Nation, In These Times, The Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions