Mainstream US media outlets have given favorable interviews to former Israeli Prime Minister and candidate at the new Israeli elections next month, Benjamin Netanyahu, refusing to do their jobs and ask the Israeli far-Right politician any meaningful followup questions. What does this say about the state of US media?

As the Israeli Likud Party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, prepares to take on his top rivals Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, for the position of Prime Minister in around two weeks time, a series of interviews have been granted to the former Israeli Prime Minister by US media. The interviews are not serious in anyway, rather presenting as a campaign ad platform for Netanyahu and his new book. What is interesting about the interviews, however, is that despite their complete lack of journalistic professionalism, they provide a perfect case study for the state of US mainstream media at this time.

Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe‘, the ‘Real Time with Bill Maher‘ on HBO and both ‘Fox and Friends’, as well as ‘Life, Liberty and Levin‘, on Fox News. From the shows with a strong Democrat bias, to ones with a strong Republican bias, we see US media groveling at the sight of an Israeli politician, giving a revealing insight into the illusion of the party divide when it comes to foreign policy, among other primary issues. The spectacle is somewhat similar to the way that US congress gave Netanyahu a standing round of applause, after the then Israeli PM showed up in front of congress to condemn the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015, without notifying the standing US President at the time, Barack Obama.

What has to be addressed are some of the conversations which occurred with Netanyahu across these three media networks. The first one we have to look at Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Keep in mind that Bill Maher has in the past said that Israel was essentially an Apartheid state, so he is aware of the allegations at the very least. This basic reality is also stated by every Palestinian human rights group, the top international human rights groups — Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — as well as Israel’s top human rights organization, B’Tselem. All of these organization make clear, Israel is an Apartheid State.

One of the lines of questioning from Bill Maher was regarding anti-Semitism. First he spoke to the Israeli former PM about Kanye West, in a joking way, and then set up the softball question of what he calls anti-Semitic statements coming from sitting members of congress. Maher quotes congress member statements, saying the following: “The reality of Israel’s Apartheid government…the occupation and ethnic cleansing (placing sarcastic emphasis on this term) Palestinians live with everyday…another one says Israel targets media sources, so the world can’t see Palestinians being massacred”. Maher then goes onto jokingly ask Netanyahu “I have three questions for you; are you massacring Palestinians? are you ethnic cleansing and are you an Apartheid State?”, to which a giggling Benjamin Netanyahu says “No, no and no”. The crowd are then instructed to cheer, as is the case on such show set ups, those in the audience are prompted. This was no mistake, it wasn’t ignorance on the part of Bill Maher, this was a propagandistic piece to whitewash Israeli crimes against humanity and displayed a complete lack of regard for any journalistic principles. One may say, but that’s just Bill Maher, he is a comedian and his show isn’t as serious as others, yet this is a classic side step of these highly influential, politically-oriented shows masquerading as comedy.

The next example is Morning Joe on MSNBC, where Netanyahu is introduced with a promo-video of how close he has been to US Presidents throughout countless administrations, with selected videos of US Presidents showering the Israeli politician with praise. The first issue that MSNBC’s hosts chose to ask Netanyahu about was the topic of Iranian weapons being used inside Ukraine. Funnily enough, this is not how they phrase the question, instead the following is what they said:

“Mr Prime Minister, thank you for being with us and it’s very timely that you are here. Obviously, the people of Ukraine, last night, terrorized by a country that has been the epicenter of terrorism in the globe since 1979, Iran. I’m curious, what do you believe the United States and its allies should do in response to the Iranians continuing to supply Vladimir Putin with weapons to kill children, women and Israeli citizens, I mean, I’m sorry, Ukrainian citizens?”

This, is perhaps even more ridiculous than the segment with Bill Maher and his outrageous attempts to whitewash Israeli warcrimes and to equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Netanyahu is not currently the Prime Minister, Ukraine has not been attacked by Iran, and there is no evidence that Iranian weapons are being used to target women and children in Ukraine. The entire statement sounds like it was written by Netanyahu himself. This framing is so insultingly bad that it just makes up alternative facts, asserts that the existence of the Iranian state post-revolution has been nothing but terrorism, and at the end, there seems to be no grasp of irony in asking an Israeli ex-Prime Minister about others killing women and children. If there was ever an indication that US media is void of any sort of professional journalistic practices or integrity, it is this opening statement.

Then we have, Fox News, where the host of ‘Life, Liberty and Liven‘, Mark Liven, starts by saying “he’s running for Prime Minister, and my fingers are crossed because we need a strong Israel, and he has written a book, that is so fantastic, it is called ‘Bibi: My Story’ and you know what, it’s Israel’s story, it’s America’s story, it is the world’s story, it is so readable and understandable, it’s a narrative where he walks through….”. Mark Liven continues for another half minute praising Benjamin Netanyahu’s book and then begins by asking Netanyahu about “this regime in Iran“. The Fox and Friends interview is also a groveling performance, filled with softball questions.

If you watch these interviews, it would give you the impression that they were interviewing a 12 year old who had just discovered the cure for cancer. It is as if each outlet are competing as to which can grovel the hardest for Benjamin Netanyahu and make him seem as if he is a cuddly friend and not a sociopathic far-right war criminal, still fighting in the Israeli court system to not go to prison for bribery charges.

We have many examples of double-standards, especially with the Western media coverage of the war in Ukraine, but it is hard to believe just how far these media outlets will go to do propaganda for Benjamin Netanyahu, especially before the upcoming Israeli elections. All of the interviews featured a promotional aspect for Netanyahu’s new book, open praise and respect for the former Israeli Prime Minister, and featured not a single difficult question or any meaningful followups.

All of these hosts have shows on major corporate media outlets, where they claim to represent opinions from across the American political spectrum, yet this is insultingly and provably false. These outlets have zero credibility and when they attack others for examples of journalistic malpractice, this is exactly why we shouldn’t even bother entertaining them. They have no moral high-ground and are a joke, which is why they are being left behind, forced to censor the alternative media sources, because nobody trusts such garbage propaganda. It isn’t even smart propaganda, it’s simply trash with expensive equipment filming it.