Mainstream media. When silence becomes editorial policy
A fracture has opened in Australian media, and it is no longer subtle.
On one side sits what people see every day on their phones. Raw footage, unedited testimony, the awful intimacy of a war recorded by those living inside it. On the other sits the Sydney Morning Herald: moderated, measured, written as though mass civilian death can be rendered bearable through tone alone.
For many Australians, that softened version is the only version.
My father is ninety-four. He does not scroll. He does not watch livestreams from Rafah. He does not see rubble shifting under bare hands or hear final messages sent from beneath concrete. He reads the Herald to understand what is being done in our name.
He is not a fringe reader. He votes. He shapes conversation. He believes the paper that calls itself the record will tell him what matters most.
However, the question is no longer whether the Herald covered Gaza. The question is whether it witnessed it.
Gaza reporting bias
Since October 2023, Gaza has become the most documented civilian catastrophe of the modern era. Tens of thousands dead. Entire neighbourhoods erased. Starvation warnings issued. Aid workers killed. Journalists killed in unprecedented numbers.
A review of senior international commentary over this period reveals something striking. The defining moral crisis of this decade rarely commanded sustained, front-facing analysis from the Herald’s most senior international voice, Peter Hartcher.
Between October 2023 and mid 2025, Hartcher appears to have written three substantive pieces primarily focused on Gaza and Palestine. Three.
That is not absence of coverage across the masthead. It is absence of weight. A crisis of this magnitude would ordinarily generate columns, follow-ups, moral framing, and pressure. Instead,
Gaza largely entered the opinion pages through the language of diplomacy, optics, and political management.
When the war’s most disturbing episodes surfaced globally, they were reported. What was missing was insistence. The drumbeat. The editorial heat.
Gaza realities
Consider what Australians were watching elsewhere. Outside of mainstream media.
Ambulance crews killed in incidents that demanded investigation.
The case of six year old Hind Rajab, whose desperate calls for rescue were recorded before the ambulance sent to her was later found destroyed.
Medical staff detained for extended periods without charge.
Reports and footage alleging abuse of detainees.
Mass graves reported at hospital sites.
Deadly shootings around food distribution points.
Seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in three consecutive drone strikes along a pre-cleared humanitarian route, including Australian volunteer Zomi Frankum.
Each episode travelled the world at speed. Each generated international scrutiny. In Australia, they passed through the cycle and moved on.
If China had killed an Australian aid worker in a marked humanitarian convoy in 2023, it would still dominate commentary today.
There would be demands for consequences.
https://michaelwest.com.au/mainstream-media-when-silence-becomes-editorial-policy/