Coverage of Aaron Bushnell’s Self-Immolation Highlights Media Bias
Accuracy and objectivity have always been the stalwart tenets of good journalism. These core values almost exclusively distinguish good journalism from bad. While truth used to be the beacon readers expected, could even take for granted, it was in jeopardy long before “alternative facts” turned reality upside down. Now, even objectivity has been downgraded to bias stoking. Reporting reads like Op-Ed pieces.
The reporting on Aaron Bushnell’s February 26th, 2024 self-immolation underscored media bias as quickly as it abandoned that story for the next sound byte.
Less than a month ago, a young military man filmed himself standing in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. Then he soaked himself in flammable liquid, put his U.S. Air Force cap on, and said these words:
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
And then he lit himself on fire.
Before he collapsed, he called out “Free Palestine!” as many times as he could.