The media's terror-supporting complicity must be called out - opinion

Who’ll be remembered as this war’s Cronkite, Pyle, or Pearl?

When top foreign correspondents arrive in Israel, they hope to cover the journalistic big three: a war, a peace agreement, and an election.

Those stationed here for five years have been able to cover the longest war in Israel’s history and the Abraham Accords. But they have also had the misfortune of covering five elections.

Serving as a war correspondent is an impressive badge of honor. It means following in the footsteps of the great Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Ernie Pyle, and Daniel Pearl; and long before his quarter-century anchoring CBS’s Evening News, Dan Rather covered the Vietnam War. 

Even world-renowned authors Ernest Hemingway and Jack London covered wars for publications. 

Hemingway filed reports for Collier’s Magazine from the Normandy landings on D-Day and the liberation of Paris in World War II.

London served as a correspondent for the San Francisco Examiner during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, a year after writing Call of the Wild.

So, who will be remembered as the great correspondent who ventured into Gaza and covered the war that began with the Oct. 7 massacre? As the war comes closer to its conclusion, it has become increasingly apparent that the answer will be “No one.” 

Floods of anti-Israel bias in the media 

IN A war full of misreporting and anti-Israel bias, the iconic journalist may end up being Abdallah Aljamal, the Gaza correspondent for the Palestine Chronicle, who was killed as the IDF rescued three Israeli hostages he was holding in his home.

Israel made a controversial decision a decade ago not to permit journalists into Gaza during wars, except when embedded with the IDF during limited incursions. 

Whether the decision was made to protect journalists or to get them out of the army’s way, the result has been that this war has been covered by ordinary Gazans with cellphones.

The IDF has embedded journalists in Lebanon. But as Andrew Fox reported this week, Hezbollah has warned that any major news outlet that accepts the IDF’s offer will put its colleagues in Beirut in danger of repercussions. 

As anyone who has been watching, or reading, international news reports for the past 14 months knows, the resulting coverage in this war hasn’t been too pretty.

Operation Swords of Iron began with Associated Press (AP) coverage from Issam Adwan, whose byline hasn’t been seen since media watchdog HonestReporting revealed on October 11 that he had called publicly, in English, for the annihilation of Israel and compared Israel to the Nazis. 

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The New York Times rehired Soliman Hijjy on October 8, despite being aware that his Arabic social media posts praised Adolf Hitler.

SOME JOURNALISTS who infiltrated Israel along with Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. have been fired from top media outlets. 

Giving credit where it's due

CNN deserves credit for dismissing Oct. 7 infiltrator Hassan Eslaiah, who was kissed by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Abdel Qader Sabbah, photographed himself with a senior Hamas leader, served in a Hamas-run body, praised terrorists, and shared anti-Israeli propaganda.

But lately, there have seemingly been no consequences for journalists who celebrated the massacre of Israelis, and top media outlets are allowing them to continue reporting on the war. If it were just three or four biased journalists, they could be dismissed as a few bad apples. 

However, HonestReporting has revealed 20  such “journalists” from six top media outlets, which means it’s a feature, not a bug.

Eight of them have worked for Reuters, including Yasser Qudih, who infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 and was honored by Hamas. He went on to win the 2024 Pulitzer Prize with other Reuters photography staff.

No action was taken by Reuters against Doaa Rouqa and Hamuda Hassan after they celebrated images of Oct. 7 atrocities. Lately, Rouqa has been filing reports for the Houthi-owned Al-Masirah TV.

Reuters’ Iraq bureau chief Timour Azhari has repeatedly demonized Israel online. But he continues to write articles about the war that are published around the world, and this week his byline even graced the feature pages of The Jerusalem Post.

Suhaib Jadallah Salem, Mohammed Jadallah Salem, Fadi Shanaa, and Ibraheem Abu Mustafa have all received awards from Hamas. However, Reuters did not take any disciplinary action.

AP STILL employs seven journalists who either infiltrated Israel or collaborated with terror groups. 

Photographers Hatem Ali and Ali Mahmud knew where to be on Oct. 7 to capture images of Israelis kidnapped to Gaza, and they could not have operated alongside Hamas without its blessing.

Adel Hana, Hatem Moussa, Fatima Shbair, and Khalil Hamra all participated in official Hamas propaganda events, yet were defended by AP. Hana also taught media courses for the Hamas-run information office, following the terrorist group’s guidelines.

Mohammed Zanaty is a Lebanese cameraman employed by AP, who supported a terror group aligned with Hamas, yet AP kept silent on the matter. 

The New York Times has vigorously defended Oct. 7 infiltrators Yousef Masoud and Samar Abu Elouf, who were honored by Hamas’s government media office as “work partners” at a Hamas “loyalty day” event three years before they won the prestigious George Polk Award for their photojournalism during the current war.

AFP stood by Mohammed Baba, a photojournalist who participated in the same event.

CBS News has ignored calls to take action against Marwan Al-Ghoul, a veteran producer for the network who has spoken at an official event of the PFLP, a proscribed terror organization.

And finally, zero action has been taken against Abeer Ayyoub of The Wall Street Journal, who used her X account to spread terrorist propaganda and fake news as Hamas massacred thousands of Israelis. 

She replied in Arabic to Elon Musk’s solidarity post with Israel, telling him to “Eat sh*t.”

HonestReporting published an online petition this week that has already been signed by thousands of people calling out the six media outlets for their complicity in continuing to employ terror-supporting journalists who should no longer be allowed to report on Israel for any respectable publication.

The public is encouraged to write letters to the editor. Sample letters can be found at www.honestreporting.com/coc.

Abeer Ayyoub is no Edward R. Murrow, and Hamuda Hassan is no Hemingway. It’s time for their bosses to stop pretending that they can cover this conflict objectively. 

Gil Hoffman is the executive director of the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting. He served as chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post for 24 years.