How to Sell a Genocide

The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

By: Adam H. Johnson

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

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 United States 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 United States 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 United States' 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 United States media.

©2026 Adam H. Johnson

Great analysis

This book is impeccable researched and supported by clear evidence and well argued points. A great example of media criticism and a significant contribution to the history of media journalism and the culpability in genocide.

Scathing indictment

Johnson does a fantastic job of methodically showing the bias of the center left news establishment against Gaza. Incredibly well researched, it pulls no punches.

A Vital Analysis of a Public Atrocity

The focus on center-left media in this analysis is key to showing the reality that American politicians have a bipartisan consensus on maintenance of an increasingly brutal and repressive national security state. Everyone in the US needs to read this and understand how we are sold on the idea that we must commit or be complicit in genocide in order to be Good Americans.

Genocidal Complicity in liberal "Legacy Media."

Excellent book on the cover that large liberal media outlets in the United States provided for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Well laid out and organized, very easy to comprehend. Great narration. 5 stars, will re-read.

Essential. Must read. Must reread.

Consent is manufactured, coerced and forced. Author makes the case and brings receipts. Completely devastating and enraging. Exemplary reporting.