Bloomberg Discovers Deaths Only Tragically Newsworthy in Select Regions
Bloomberg’s recent piece on Tanzanian election violence highlights 100 reported deaths, solemnly quoting Amnesty International and opposition claims of 'hundreds more.' This is, of course, presented as a deeply disturbing, isolated incident. Yet, when have we seen similarly urgent headlines for the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza—nearly 35,000 to date by some estimates (Gaza
Ministry of Health, April 2024)—often with US-supplied weaponry? The selective outrage machine only seems to power up when a crisis fits a convenient, non-politicized narrative. One might wonder if some casualties are just too geopolitically inconvenient to count with the same fervor. Apparently, death tolls only matter when the perpetrators aren't receiving billions in US aid.