We are even more servants than the master wants

1. The writer has been a subscriber to the U.S. Wall Street Journal newspaper for about 30 years, and for a few decades he also subscribed to the International Herald Tribune. As an Italian, it is frankly painful for me to acknowledge this, but in matters of international politics and economics, there is a literal gulf between the level of information of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and even the British The Economist on the one hand, and the average level of the Italian press on the other. Regardless of political orientation, all issues and problems of international politics and economics are covered in much greater depth by the Anglo-Saxon press, compared to the slight superficiality and approximation of approach of the Italian press.

Also consistently perceptible is the university-level, often specialized preparation of journalists and columnists in the same Anglo-Saxon press. While now every day in our daily and weekly newspapers we read articles, and not only by young journalists, of an absolutely embarrassing lack of preparation and superficiality; moreover, it is mostly people jumping from pole to pole: one day they write about the San Remo songs festival and the next day about the riots in Iran.

2. The Wall Street Journal has an openly pro-Israel line. Nonetheless, for more than three weeks almost every day, a long article dedicated to the chilling conditions facing the people of Gaza has come out on the front page. The realism and details of the WSJ articles are similar to those of reports and articles in Arab and pro-Palestinian media such as Al Jazeera: absolutely chilling. Even the warmongering CNN does realistic and chilling reports...

Personally, reading those articles causes me great emotional stress. When one learns that the poor hygienic and sanitary conditions and lack of appropriate care of the wounded brought about by hospital crowding are promoting the proliferation of insects and larvae on the wounds, as well as epidemic diseases; or of the disconnection of intensive care and dialysis apparatuses due to lack of electricity; or of the surgeries, including amputations, performed without anesthesia...

3. Very little, on the other hand, of the terrifying conditions of the population of Gaza, is read in the entire “mainstream” Italian press: Il Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Repubblica, Il Giornale, etc. Most of the articles, even when they should be reporting, are almost always opinionated (regularly pro-Israel), and one has to struggle even to find the latest figure of the Palestinian death toll - now over 11,000. One tries to mention the number at most “en passant”.... as a figure independent of the terms of the issue.

The well-known adage “Italians good people”, I am afraid, is now a thing of the past. During the Vietnam War I was a child, but I remember vividly that the atrocities of napalm bombing were a thing known and discussed everywhere in Italy.

One would think that from one war and one massacre of civilians to another (Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine), even in Italy we have all become much less sensitive... But in reality, hypocrisy reigns first and foremost: during the war on Libya, our air force also bombed Libya, but this was covered by our media for several years...

4. As if the cynicism of such a reductionist approach were not enough, for more than a week, only in Italy, the front pages of newspapers have been occupied by the well-known story of the medical case of 8-month-old British baby Indi Gregory. The explosion of the affair in our media occurred after a trip of Giorgia Meloni to London, ostensibly for a conference on artificial intelligence: upon her return, Meloni requested the attribution of Italian citizenship and the transfer to Italy of the child. It was from that moment that the media coverage exploded, making headlines.

5. Anyone with a modicum of common sense, and even a cursory knowledge of the history of Western mass media from the early 1900s to the present, should smell a rat, that is, a manipulative campaign, specifically mass distraction. Manipulative campaigns, starting with the exponential increase in the importance of mass media brought about by the internet, cell phone and new media revolution, are now decided and managed by the mainstream media often on their own, i.e., independently of consultation with political power. How can we fail to recall, for example, the campaign about Gaddafi's alleged exterminations, preparatory to the “wave of outrage” and the war and bombings in Libya? Today everyone agrees that it was an absolutely exaggerated, not to say unfounded, campaign.

6. But the genesis of the case in question-that is, its media explosion upon Meloni's return from London, with her request to be granted Italian citizenship and the newborn's transfer to Italy-cannot but raise the very well-founded suspicion of Meloni's intentional planning and participation in the campaign, promptly unleashed even by the Catholic press, such as L'Avvenire.

The result is that, among Western countries, only in Italy, the unfortunate story of a newborn girl afflicted from birth with a devastating genetic disease has been on the front page for a week, before or in competition with the ongoing tragedy in Gaza. The poor child died yesterday, and not even a few hours later, President Biden and the US media announced to the world that among the Hamas hostages would be a 3-year-old American child: the news is already on the front page of today's Repubblica.

But the ongoing tragedy in Gaza has claimed 11,100 lives, of which the UN says about 70 percent are women and children, and at least 4800 children. It raises the very well-founded suspicion that the problem is, quite simply, that the 4800 children are neither Jews, nor Europeans, nor Christians: not a good message for nearly 2 billion Muslims, who for more than half a century have been accusing us Westerners of having and systematically applying a double standard among the victims.

Even Macron-president of a country, France, that is home to a Jewish community of more than half a million people-has now publicly attacked Israel for the ongoing extermination of Palestinians, while much of Italy was thinking about the painful case of Indy Gregori. Our President of the Republic, on the other hand, though an observant Catholic, continues to limit himself to reminding us that “Hamas does not represent the Palestinians”.

The well-known adage “Italians good people” had withstood even World War II, especially given the well-known and certified Holocaust resistance not only of the Italian population but even by the vast majority of fascists.

Today, simply, an excruciating doubt arises: whether “we are even more servants than the master wants”.

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