Campus journalism in Canada has increasingly blurred the line between news and activism, particularly when it comes to Israel. Instead of fostering balanced discourse, many student publications continue to amplify ideological narratives that portray Israel as the sole aggressor while omitting critical context.

For example, Lina Obeidat’s January 17, 2025 Letter to the Editor in The Varsity argued that: “Reporters can be columnists, too.” Obeidat praised Ayesha Siddiqui’s November 2024 opinion editorial entitled: “Flawed journalism is costing Palestinians their lives” (which we covered here) which argued that impartial journalism is non-existent — and that the proof is in Western media’s “distorted” coverage of Israel.

Building on this, Obeidat dismissed journalistic neutrality, asserting that Israel targets journalists with “intimidation and assassination” and arguing that the demand for neutrality is trivial. Obeidat ultimately criticized editors for cutting out opinion in news pieces in the name of the “News-Opinion divide” rather than shifting to highlight that opinion, especially when it challenges mainstream narratives.

Phone Min Thant’s January 20, 2025, feature in The Peak entitled: “A practical guide to combating internet echo chambers,” paradoxically presented “the Palestinian genocide” as a self-evident truth while condemning Western media for false equivalence between “oppressor and oppressed.” Thant cited Hamas’ casualty figures without context and erased Hamas’ role in the conflict, further illustrating how media criticism is often weaponized to discredit perspectives that don’t align with their worldview.

Thant and Obeidat both exploited the language of media criticism to discredit reporting and perspectives that do not align with their views — views that they hold as self-evident truths; views that they absorbed because of the lack of impartiality in media and the disinformation echo chamber they are in.

The online echo chamber mirrors what we see festering on Canadian university campuses. Yasmine Benabderrahmane’s January 27, 2025 opinion piece in The Medium entitled: “Re-defining A Ceasefire” peddled an conspiracy theory that the “fascist, colonial state” of Israel purposefully facilitates military action against Palestinians on “notable US-related events.”

Her evidence? The TikTok ban and Trump’s inauguration happening as the ceasefire is enacted, or the “the attack on Rafah that aligned with the Met Gala in 2024,” and more.

This conspiratorial tirade was paired with a criticism of the ADL and its take on the Elon Musk controversy, criticizing “white Zionists” for feeding into the notion that “antisemitism is open to reinterpretation.” This is coming from someone praising Yahya Sinwar’s assassination as “an act of heroic martyrdom” by the Palestinian liberation movement that she commends for “stretching their hearts and voices for humanity.”

This rhetoric fuels the binary, conspiratorial thinking that dominates student media. And in this case, when the anti-Israel social media discourse is brought into mainstream discourse, it drowns out any other perspective, let alone nuanced thinking.

Take Jonas May’s January 27, 2025 article in The Aquinian entitled: “STU professor says ceasire brings temporary relief to Gaza, not resolution.” Interviewing Shaun Narine, chair of St. Thomas University’s political science department, and Nomaan X, a Fredericton Palestinian Solidarity organizer, the article includeed claims that Israel has “no intention of leaving Gaza” and has repeatedly broken ceasefires — despite Hamas’ multiple violations.

These accusations were sprinkled in between May’s description of the “Israeli and Palestinian hostages,” the lack of recognizing the “Gaza Health Ministry” as Hamas-run, and more — mimicking the same partial language we see in mainstream media and in anti-Israel discourse.

Similarly, Sophia Cohen’s January 16, 2025 article on how: “Increased Pro-Palestinian Activism in Fredericton Draws Student Response” in The Brunswickan, explored the pro-Palestine scene in Fredericton, but the article reads as a mouthpiece for the on-campus movement. It consists of an interview with a student organizer with UNB Palestinian Solidarity making claims of Israel as a “settler colonial state” and “Israeli occupation” — with no pushback or counterclaim from Cohen or another interviewee. Similarly, a January 21 article entitled: “The art of protest” advocated for BDS against Israel.

Meanwhile, Safa Hachi’s January 17, 2025 article in The Link entitled: “Gaza ceasefire announcement drives hundreds of Montrealers to the streets” featured interviewees consisting of a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Zeyad Abisaab, who praised the ceasefire as “a victory not only for the heroic people of Palestine but for all oppressed people around the world.” Untold by Hachi, the PYM has glorified Hamas’s October 7 massacres of 1,200 Israelis and hostage taking of 250 innocents.

Another is a protestor who criticized Concordia University and other institutions for “funding this genocide (…) and they are not yet ready to accept the financial cost of liberation.” A different interviewee refered to the ceasefire being a “first step” to people “realizing the evils of imperialism and capitalism, which have been exposed [through] this horrible genocide.”

The “genocide” is repeatedly referenced by the interviewees and Hachi, who similarly to May, referred to the “release of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian hostages.” Unsurprisingly, none of Hachi’s “facts” or the interviewees’ claims are countered or challenged in any way.

These examples underscore how student journalism has increasingly become a vehicle for anti-Israel activism rather than neutral and objective reporting.

Lastly, Sadie Mees’ January 8, 2025, letter in The Muse entitled: “I got arrested while protesting genocide at MUN, here’s what I learned,” brought us right back to Obeidat and her initial argument.

Mees, an organizer with MUN Students for Palestine, recounted her arrest during the MUN student encampment, framing it as a lesson in resistance. Mees explicitly rejects neutrality, aligning with Obeidat’s assertion that journalism should prioritize activism over objectivity. Both argue that neutrality serves as a shield for institutions complicit in oppression: Obeidat in the media realm and Mees in higher education.

In publishing Mees’ “lessons,” the editors at The Muse reinforcing the popular, alarming notion that journalism should take a stance and be used as a platform for social justice, even at the expense of publishing and contributing to disinformation.

This trend in student journalism shouldn’t be dismissed as “just” student journalism; it reflects the growing echo chamber on-campus and online that contributes to biased journalism all-around.