Wow! eBook
How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza
Author(s): Adam H. Johnson (Author), Noura Erakat (Contributor)
- Publisher: Pluto Press
- Publication Date: April 21, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 0745351654
- ISBN-13: 9780745351650
Book Description
“Vivid and meticulous … Through painstaking documentation, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions primed Western audiences for genocide” from the foreword by Noura Erakat, author of Justice for Some
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 an indictment of the 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, ongoing complicity of the US media.
All royalties from the book will be donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Really, really moving. What Adam Johnson is doing there is he’s forensically documenting the way in which people reported the Gaza War. Everything from the adjectives they use, the way they described the two combatants, the amount of attention they paid to casualties on the Israeli side compared to the Palestinian side’
Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest is Politics
‘Compelling .. a very interesting, challenging read’
Alastair Campbell, co-host of The Rest Is Politics
‘So intelligent. Johnson’s commentary is so good’
Briahna Joy Gray, host of the Bad Faith podcast
‘One of the more important books about politics you’re going to read this year’
Perry Bacon, New Republic
‘Brilliant … this is such a crucial book, and it’s a book that had to be written. Everyone go and get it’
Owen Jones
‘A great read. It has a ton of empirical analysis data as well as just stories of what was going on in some of these newsrooms that you probably haven’t read or encountered elsewhere. It’s a really useful tool for folks who are still trying to change the minds of folks around them, to help them really understand how freaking propagandized they are if this is the kind of media they are consuming’
Jared Ware, co-host of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
‘This is a really vital volume for seeing through media reporting from October 2023 to the present day’
Nathan Robinson, Current Affairs
‘I cannot recommend it enough. A stunning work of data analysis proving the genocide incitement perpetrated by legacy liberal media’
Matthew Remski, co-author of Conspirituality
‘A painstakingly detailed indictment of the Fourth Estate, showing how cable shows, newspapers, and online news sites helped build support for the mass killing of Palestinians’
Mondoweiss
‘Powerful .. an empirically rich critique of the full horror of the performance of American journalism on Gaza.’
Counterfire
‘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 Justice For Some
‘Read this book’
As’ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University
