Editor’s Note: The following article was adapted from State of the Free Press 2026 (The Censored Press, 2025)
In the early 1980s, Project Censored’s founder, Carl Jensen, coined the term “Junk Food News” to draw attention to the often trivial and inconsequential stories—think celebrity gossip, political theater, and other entertainment-related hoopla—that get considerable coverage from corporate news media outlets and detract from important news stories. These sensationalized stories feed something in us, including our fixation on fame.
In each edition of the State of the Free Press yearbook, we look back at the year in Junk Food News. While 2025 gave us a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet, one story showed how celebrity reporting can serve not only as a distraction but as an ideological vehicle for shaping public perception of critical events.
In March 2025, actress Gal Gadot was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not long before, Variety published an interview with Gadot, ahead of the premiere of her new live-action Snow White film, focusing primarily on her moral duty to advocate for Israeli hostages after October 7.
Gadot, who served as a combat trainer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for two years and hosted screenings for Bearing Witness—a 2023 documentary produced by the IDF—told Variety she was “all about humanity” (Note: That humanity does not extend to Palestinians) and referred to herself as an “eighth-generation Israeli.” Although that implies two hundred years of ancestry in a country less than a century old, but hey, a legacy of settler-colonialism makes math a little tricky.
“After October 7th [2023] … I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea,” Gadot said. “And also by how the media is not fair many times. So I had to speak up.” Which media, Gal? Certainly not CNN, which has received massive backlash for its pro-Israel bias.
And indeed, not the New York Times, whose article about systemic sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli women had been repeatedly and comprehensively discredited and debunked by numerous investigative journalists, as covered in Robin Andersen’s News Abuse chapter in State of the Free Press 2025.
The paper even directed its journalists to avoid using the terms “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “refugee camps” when reporting on Palestine, according to an internal memo obtained by The Intercept. NYT editors were motivated to avoid use of words that were “too incendiary on both sides.” However, The Intercept’s analysis revealed that the Times described Israeli deaths as a “massacre” on fifty-three occasions and “those of Palestinians just once,” as of November 24, 2024.
This, despite the death count of Palestinians being far greater. “The majority of news since the war began, regardless of how accurate the initial reporting, has been skewed by a systemic and institutional bias within the network toward Israel,” one CNN staffer told the Guardian. “Ultimately, CNN’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war amounts to journalistic malpractice.”
Later that month, a sour narrative emerged about the production of Snow White, even more bitter than the Evil Queen’s poison apple. Gadot’s co-star Rachel Zegler’s vocal support for Palestine via X ahead of the film’s release had Disney executives reeling. Apparently, they hadn’t accounted for the part of the story where the “fairest of them all” has her own politics. Variety even reported that death threats against Gadot spiked after Zegler’s post, prompting Disney to hire additional security for the “mother of four.” Yes, Variety actually wrote it that way.
Snow White producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak with Zegler about removing the post, allegedly convincing her to work with a “social media guru paid for by Disney to vet any posts before the film’s March 21 bow.” “Vet,” of course, is Hollywood-speak for censor. Embarrassingly, Platt’s son Jonah responded on Instagram to news of his father’s meeting with Zegler in a now-deleted comment, saying, his daddy had to “reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.” Jonah insisted Zegler’s actions “hurt the film’s box office,” calling the actress “narcissistic.” Jonah, dear, we advise you not to pursue a future in PR!
Nevertheless, Zegler refused to remove the original post in which she advocated for a free Palestine. Variety’s article implicitly attributes the film’s failure to Zegler’s cowboy-like behavior online, framing her support of Palestine as highly controversial and Gadot’s advocacy for Israeli hostages as unproblematic. This messaging reinforces a dangerous double standard, wherein corporate media valorizes pro-Israel sentiments and casts pro-Palestinian support as disruptive, career-jeopardizing, and inherently antisemitic.
In 2023, Spyglass, the studio that produces the horror film series Scream, fired actress Melissa Barrera for posting and sharing content they deemed “antisemitic.” Barrera had been posting support for Palestine amidst Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and criticism of Israel’s government.
However, Snow White’s epic flop—earning $87 million globally in its opening weekend, when it cost roughly $350 million to make and market—was almost certainly not the result of its lead actress’s support for Palestine, but rather a fundamental issue with the retelling of the classic Disney story. Disney conveniently made Zegler into the perfect “scapegoat,” according to Vanity Fair.
The reviews were scathing, with Guardian film critic Wendy Ide calling Snow White “a film made by people with cartoon dollar signs for eyes and not even the tiniest glimmer of art in their souls.” The Rolling Stone’s David Fear said the film “may not be the worst live-action adaptation of an animated touchstone, though it’s a strong contender for the blandest.”
Not to mention, there have been plenty of other highly successful film releases in the past year in which members of the main cast were vocal supporters of Palestine. Poor Things earned north of $115 million at the box office—a film that starred both Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef, who have each been steadfast in their support of Palestine, signing an open letter to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) labor union, asking leaders to protect pro-Palestine union members from being blacklisted. In his SNL monologue, Youssef said he was praying for God to “free the people of Palestine.”
The New York Times and other national papers reduced Zegler’s support of Palestine to just one of the film’s many controversies, lumping it in with Snow White’s use of CGI to create the seven dwarfs. Framing Zegler’s position this way, as frivolous and misguided, or even worse, something that puts Gadot’s safety at risk, legitimizes and normalizes the Trump administration’s actions against pro-Palestinian activists and weaponizes antisemitism, which, as Raz Segal reported for Time in May 2024, puts all Jewish people at risk.
Although celebrity news is junk-y by nature, the case of Rachel Zegler underscores how Hollywood, which epitomizes corporate mass media, functions as an extension of broader political and ideological battles—a major studio trying to silence someone who is unyielding in their support for Palestinian liberation. Moreover, the way the corporate media cover these issues, even concerning celebrities, shapes cultural values and often undermines systemic progress.
However, Zegler is more protected than many others who align with her advocacy, as evidenced by the countless international students in the United States currently in limbo, left to pick up the pieces after facing visa cancellations, deportation threats, and academic discipline for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech and assembly by speaking out against Israel’s genocide.
If you want to write a story about Gal Gadot destroying her own goodwill, then nothing does a better job of that than her own public role as a Dinah Project Advisory Board Member.
The authors spent decades as Israeli government officials participating in the joint criminal enterprise and covering up crimes outlined in a multitude of UN Human Rights Commission reports (e.g. the Goldstone Report), the ICJ findings regarding apartheid, the blockade, starvation, and etc. They have taken part in obstructing ongoing investigations by the ICC and International Treaty bodies, while pretending they are conducting a credible inquiry of their own. They have done nothing of the kind, since they continue to promote blue ribbon panel coverups and promote propaganda that prevent real criminal investigations. You are judged by the company you keep, and they are all tone deaf monsters.
“… and referred to herself as an “eighth-generation Israeli.” Although that implies two hundred years of ancestry in a country less than a century old, but hey, a legacy of settler-colonialism makes math a little tricky.”
Well, she confused ‘sabra’ with Israeli, and that her father claims to be only a sixth-generation sabra. He has Austrian, Russian, and German roots, while her mother’s family is Czech and Polish. Not sounding ancestral homeland-ish enough, they changed the surname from Greenstein to Gadot.
But she also wrote “Killing innocent Palestinians is horrific. Killing innocent Israelis is horrific … If you don’t feel the same, I think should ask yourself why that is.” and was condemned by genocidal Israelis who believe that some innocents are more equal than others.
Re: So Hostage is saying that the Arab revolt proclaimed by the Hashemite Dynasty in WW1 against the Ottoman Empire is ongoing? Well, it’s true that “Lawrence of Arabia ” with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif -the Hollywood version of the revolt – is still popular on various media platforms. Maybe that’s what Hostage is referring to.
Nope, I cited Rashid Khalidi: “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017”.
FYI, The Arab Governor of Jerusalem, Ahmad Agha Duzdar, name appeared in a petition by Muhammad Sharif in 1840 demanding that “the Jews must not be enabled to carry out the paving, and they must be cautioned against raising their voices and displaying their books at the Western wall.” See the continuing claims in that regard in Article 13 of the Paletine Mandate and the Letter dated 23 February 1968 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan addressed to the Secretary-General
I’ll remind you that I’ve always cited the prohibition against colonization of Palestine incorporated in firmans (imperial decrees) from the 1880s onward restricting Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine. Those were issued by the Sultan and upheld in accordance with “Three Oaths” (Shalosh Shavuot), a concept from the Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 111a). That was the majority view of the Ottoman Chief Rabbi, the Hakham Bashi and US officials, like Oscar Straus, the first Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (1906–09), three-time emissary to Ottoman Turkey (1887–89, 1898–1900, 1909–10); Henry Morgenthau Sr. the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; and Simon Wolf the US Counsul in Egypt, and President of B’nai B’rith, USA.
I’ve also cited the fact that Zionist colonizers were claim jumpers who were violating Ottoman state land and waste land laws of communal ownership regarding public use of land, water, and other resources. The fellahin farmers had been governed by those rules of usufruct for centuries and Zionists colonizers were trespassers and terrorists.
Aaron Hershler died in 1873 and was retroactively recognized as the first “national martyr” in the Jewish-Arab conflict. He is commemorated as “the first Israel Defense Forces (IDF) casualty”. On the night of January 1, 1873, Hershler was standing guard at the Montefiore Windmill. He pursued men almost to Jericho, before he was killed. He was shot 12 times by “intruders” he accused of being Bedouins thieves.
Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the biggest victim of them all??
Just to note that my grandchildren are 8th generation born-in- Israel. So I wouldn’t automatically dismiss Gal Gadot’s claim.