The Western news agencies continue to employ journalists in Gaza who have been exposed for their links to Hamas. Worse still, those journalists have been given awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, for their coverage of the Gaza war that depicts the IDF soldiers as war criminals. More on this media scandal can be found here: “Media Celebrate Images by Photographers With Unethical Ties to Hamas,” by Rinat Harash, HonestReporting, December 19, 2024:
Hamas couldn’t have asked for better coverage. The terror group’s yearslong investment in relations with Gaza journalists who work for the foreign media has paid off once again.
The annual end-of-year photo galleries of Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN, Time Magazine, and The New York Times, featured heart-wrenching images by photographers who were previously exposed by HonestReporting for having unethical ties to Hamas.
Reuters’ Mohammed Salem, AP’s Fatima Shbair, and The New York Times’ Samar Abu Elouf — all had been honored by Hamas or taken an active part in its “Loyalty Day” events. But it didn’t stop their outlets from presenting their tainted work as a pinnacle of journalistic achievement.
Reuters’ Questionable Standards
Reuters news agency praised a photo by Mohammed Jadallah Salem, showing a surreal Gaza scene: Wedding dresses “for sale” displayed on mannequins amid debris, as displaced Palestinians walk by.
So surreal, in fact, that one wonders whether the picture was deliberately staged. But that’s beside the point: Any junior photo editor in the once-respected news agency should have spiked photos taken by Salem, by virtue of HonestReporting’s exposé of his cozy relationship with Hamas.
Was Reuters unaware of Mohammed Jadallah Salem’s close links to Hamas, or did it know and simply not care that he had long been revealed to be a supporter of the group? His office in Gaza is bedecked with Hamas flags, and he and his three brothers, also journalists, have received commendations from the terror group.
The same applies to CNN, which also included photos by Salem in its 2024 gallery.
In 2017, Salem — who recently won the Pulitzer prize and the World Press Photo award — received an award from Hamas on behalf of his brother Suhaib, the head of Reuters visuals in Gaza. Two senior Hamas officials granted the commendation: Khalil al-Hayya and Mushir al-Masri.
Al-Hayya has publicly called for a fight against Israel as “the head of the serpent,” and al-Masri has vowed to “uproot the Zionists with our axes, knives, guns.”
The Associated Press also ignored the facts. Their 2024 end-of-year gallery includes photos of Gaza’s damaged houses and displaced people by Fatima Shbair, who was exposed by HonestReporting for participating in a Hamas promotional video.
In the video, which featured award-winning journalists honored by Hamas in a 2021 “Loyalty Day” event, Shbair thanked the Hamas Media Office in a gushing display of emotion, calling its efforts “incredible”…
Shbair has appeared in a 2021 Hamas video, in which she thanked the terror group’s media office. This did not stop the AP from employing her. And the AP included in its gallery of outstanding photos taken during 2024 several photos taken by Shbair, the loyal handmaiden of Hamas over many years. No one at AP seemed to think that her connection to a designated terrorist group should disqualify her from being a photojournalist for the agency.
Finally, The New York Times — despite knowing about the problematic relations between its photographer Samar Abu Elouf and Hamas — included one of her photos in its 2024 selection.
Elouf “delivered some of the most indelible images of the year: a series of portraits of Gazans horribly injured in the war, including children who had lost arms, legs or eyes,” the paper declared.
Samir Elouf was determined to show the victims of “IDF barbarity” as a way to whip up anti-Israel sentiment. Hollow-eyed children and missing limbs are her specialty. But years before the war in Gaza began, she was already being honored by Hamas for her work as a propagandist for the terror group.
The New York Times will no doubt continue with its anti-Israel coverage, infuriating many but gladdening the hearts of “Palestinians” and their supporters everywhere — from Gaza City to Ramallah, as well as all those young people, wrapped in their keffiyehs, on campuses across the land who chant “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” which means, if properly parsed, let Israel be destroyed and replaced by a 23rd Arab state.
The New York Times long ago chose sides. And it’s not on the side of Israel.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
They are irrelevant. I never read newspapers except for a brief while in 1996 in LA, and after that, my source of news used to be Rush Limbaugh, then when they came online in 1998, Fox News, then added Jerusalem Post, then in 2014 Sirius XM’s Patriot Channel. Around 2020, I dropped Fox News due to its cooperation w/ the Steal, and since then, it’s been various podcasts – Andrew Wilkow, Dave Rubin, Glenn Beck, Rob Schmitt, Mark Halpern, Megyn Kelly, & a few others. If I want news about the Middle East, I go to JNS and listen to Caroline Glick and The Quad, and for India, I listen to a few select Indian analysts (who unfortunately for me, do their stuff in Hindi, which I don’t fluently follow)
TL:DR version: I simply don’t follow mainstream media sources
James Lincoln says
࿗Infidel࿘ says,
“They are irrelevant.”
Yes, mainstream / legacy media newsfeeds are certainly irrelevant to truth seekers.
But…
Unfortunately, they are “relevant” to a large percent of the “news-lazy” Western population.
Tony says
Leftists partner with Islam and its Muslims against Non-Muslims to gain ultimate power and control. Allah, the source inspiration, in Quran 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah, so they k i l l and are k i l led…”. Allah, the murderer, in Qur’an 8:12 says, “When your lord revealed to the angels: ‘I am with you so make firm those who believed[Muslims]. I will cast a terror into the hearts of those who became infidels[Non-Muslims]. So strike above their necks(decapitation), and strike off(chop off) every finger from them.’” Allah, the terrorist, in Qur’an 49:15 says, “Surely the believers are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY AND THEIR LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.”
Samalaga Elika says
The West are useful idiots for islam and their terrorists.
Ian Harris says
Here in UK, the BBC and their reporters are anti Israel. 10 o’clock TV news never misses an opportunity to show jnjured Gazans, especially children , because Hamas uses hospitals and compliant doctors as human shields
OLD GUY says
Makes me wonder how much Islamic money is supporting our news media and our political candidates.