Ta-Nehisi Coates Exposes Media Bias in Reporting on Palestine

Sign up for our free newsletters, created for the culture by the culture!

• The Block A weekly roundup of Greenwood, Tulsa and Oklahoma news.
• The Daily Holler Local, state and national news in your inbox Monday through Friday.

Sign up

American author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates defended his critique of Western media as a guest on CBS Mornings after a journalist questioned his coverage of Palestinians in his new book, “The Message.”

The Monday morning conversation began with co-host Nate Burleson introducing the world-renowned author’s new book.

“It argues that much of our politics actually happens before we walk into a voting booth,” Coates said. “That our choices around us, that who we believe is human, who we don’t believe is human, what policies we believe should be in the world, which policies we don’t, are actually shaped largely by writing and the stories we tell.”

At least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since an October 7 attack from Hamas resulted in a genocidal campaign by Israel to destroy the region.

Notably, more journalists have been killed in Palestine in the first year of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza than any other conflict in recent history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Yet, Western media has regularly omitted coverage of the deaths of their Middle East counterparts even as Israel blocks Western journalists from accessing the battlefields.

Israel Defense Forces has killed roughly 41,638 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, with well over 100,000 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Over 1,000 Israelis were killed and over 200 taken hostage on October 7.

About 100 remain hostages in Gaza as Israel continues a bombing and ground offensive that has now spread to Lebanon.

Co-host compares Ta-Nehisi’s book to extremism

“The Message” is a collection of three essays that follow Coates’ reflections on his first trip to Africa in Dakar, Senegal and to Columbia, South Carolina, where he explores local attempts to ban one of his books.

Ultimately, his book takes readers on a journey through his visit to Jerusalem, where he witnessed Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians.

Firstly, Coates said his book makes the argument that writers shape our perception of the world and which perspectives we value. Almost immediately, co-host Tony Dokoupil responded by comparing Ta-Nehisi Coates to an extremist.

“I have to say when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards and the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil said.

The co-host, who is white, questioned why Ta-Nehisi Coates’, who is Black, focused on the plight of the Palestinians and not their violent response to Israeli oppression.

“Is it because you just don’t believe that Israel, in any condition, has a right to exist,” Dokoupil asked.

Ta-Nehisi Coates condemns Israeli Apartheid

In a response that has since gone viral, Coates said he’s most concerned always with those who have no voice and said perspectives that prioritize Israel aren’t the ones being dismissed.

“But what I saw in Palestine, what I saw on the West Bank, what I saw in Haifa, Israel, what I saw in the south Hebron hills, those are the stories that I have not heard. And those were the stories that I was most occupied with,” Coates said.

Related Stories

• A third human rights group accuses Israel of apartheid
• “First Genocidal act committed by Israel,” South Africa claims
• International Court of Justice orders Israel to prevent genocide

Doubling down on his interrogation, Dokoupil presses Ta-Nehisi Coates on whether he believes Israel has a right to exist.

“My answer is that no country in this world establishes its ability to exist through rights. It establishes its right through force, as America did,” Coates said.

Accusing Coates of demonizing Israel and seeking its downfall, Dokoupil asks what is it about a Jewish state that is so offensive.

“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state. I’m offended by the idea of a state built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are,” Coates said.

He goes on to explain that Israel has a two-tiered system of citizenship, where Israeli Jews have more rights than non-Jewish Palestinian citizens. Comparing it to American Jim Crow, Coates said the discrimination Palestinians face is similar to what Black Americans faced during segregation.

Ta-Nehisi Coates shuts down attempts to justify oppression: “Either Apartheid is right or it’s wrong.”

In one final attempt to blame Palestinians for their own oppression and what critics are calling a genocide, Dokoupil asks “what is their role in the lack of a Palestinian state.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates ends the conversation by calling Apartheid wrong, no matter the historical context.

“Either Apartheid is right or it’s wrong. It’s really, really simple. Either what I saw is right, or it’s wrong.”

Watch the full exchange below: