Never Again Quotes

“He read the headline aloud. “Israel Fends Off Attack From Palestinian Terrorists. That’s definitely a headline I didn’t think I’d ever see.” He skimmed the article, which described how the Iranian-backed Hezbollah had set up an attack using Palestinian children.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Dominic knew better. People were sheep who only read the headline. Maybe the first few paragraphs. That was it. Hardly anyone read more than that, because they were lazy. They depended on people like him to deliver the truth in bite-sized pieces. He looked around the room at all the editors listening attentively to the top guy spewing his propaganda, and he began to wonder if it was it even possible to deliver the truth anymore.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Vicente continued. “Honestly, I don’t know how you could even fuck this one up. Seven innocent Palestinian kids were murdered by the Israeli army… and we actually sided with the fucking Israelis? Are you shitting me?” One of the women in the room raised her hand. “Sir?” “What is it, Cheryl?” Vicente snapped. “Mr. Vicente, the Israeli government released video footage showing that group of kids attacking two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. The soldiers were defending themselves, and there was also corroborating video footage from⁠—” “We don’t portray Israel as the victim, ever!” Vicente’s voice echoed in the room, his face red with anger. “And we’re certainly not going to say that above the fold—even if those kids were a horde of screaming banshees led by the ghost of Yasser Arafat. Our readers don’t want to hear that narrative, and you know it! What’s wrong with you people?”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Dominic felt himself getting hot under the collar. Everyone in the room knew exactly what article had gotten subscribers so upset. He himself had been shocked when he saw that the paper had actually printed something favorable about Israel. Although the Intelligencer had always claimed to be fair and evenhanded with the news, that had never been true. They were always slanting things in ways that catered to their audience’s preferred narratives. Even their hard news reporting had ways to tilt the narrative to maximize profits.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Fortunately, Marty was able to give me all the stories they’d reported on. And they all had one thing in common: an interest in Israel, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Even the lobbyist was focused on influencing congressmen and senators against the BDS movement.” “Damn it to hell, I hate politics.” Levi frowned. “What’s the BDS movement?” “I had to look it up. It’s an anti-Israel movement that’s supported by a fringe group in Congress and is gaining some traction in the press. It’s about boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel. Evidently, these people think Israel is the boogieman and Jews are⁠—” “At the root of all things that have ever been wrong in the world,” Levi said sourly. Denny nodded. “What a bunch of crap. People have been saying that about minorities since the dawn of time.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Levi stared daggers at the kid. “I’m the guy who is going to introduce you to your dead relatives if you ever talk to me or Mindy again.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Levi focused on Dominic, looking for any signs of deception. Raised eyebrows, avoiding eye contact, a nervous smile, even the slightest fluctuation in speech patterns. But he saw no indications of lying. “Mendel’s wife claimed he thought the paper was trying to shape the news to a narrative that he believed didn’t represent the truth.” Dominic sighed and nodded almost imperceptibly. “I don’t do that myself—that is, try to conform to a preconceived narrative—but it’s an understood thing in the business that the news isn’t always what people think it is. I’ve been around long enough to know that, and so had Mendel.” He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “We’ve got an audience to cater to, and my management is all about selling more copies and getting more clicks. They know that if it’s stuff people want to hear, the revenue will be higher. Same goes with TV. Ratings are gold, and the one with all the gold wins.” Levi kept his expression neutral, even though he didn’t like what he was hearing. “Don’t you think people want to hear the truth?” Dominic’s eyes widened and his voice took on a tone of mild indignation. “We always tell the truth. We just don’t always tell all of the truth.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Politics didn’t serve a purpose in Levi’s life, but he wasn’t oblivious to it.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Lucy nodded in understanding. “I suppose it would be like talking about how a police officer shot a teenager on the streets, and leaving out the fact that the teenager was aiming a gun at him.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“Okay,” Levi said. “I understand why that would upset your husband. But do you really think that would be cause for him to be murdered?” Menachem cleared his throat. “My brother-in-law was a very righteous man. He felt it was his calling to bring the truth to the people. You need to realize that to him, what the paper was doing was a sin. I also heard plenty from him in the last year about this issue. He made it clear that even though the newspaper never lied, by ensuring certain things were never said in print, they molded the public narrative. It was a sin of omission.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“But he confided something to me that he wasn’t yet prepared to put into print. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he ever would be. He was almost convinced that the company he was working for was purposefully trying to deceive its readers. To shape the narrative, if you will.” Levi frowned. “I don’t understand. Isn’t that a newspaper’s job? I see outlandish stuff in the papers all the time.” “That’s the editorial sections. My husband worked in what people in the trade like to call hard news. It should involve no opinions, just the facts. But Mendel was convinced that the management at the paper wasn’t interested in telling their millions of readers the truth.”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again

“blinked in a amazement”
― M.A. Rothman, Never Again