HonestReporting was born in 2000 in reaction to the appalling mainstream media coverage of the Second Intifada. Since then, Israel has experienced multiple crises and conflicts of varying degrees of severity. One constant has been the negative reporting that has accompanied every incident or Israeli military operation. HonestReporting has been there throughout, calling out media outlets, securing corrections, and educating the public to become better media consumers.
One year ago, the lives of every Israeli citizen and every Jew were upended by the horrific events of October 7. The aftermath continues with seemingly no end in sight. Along with every organization impacted by October 7, HonestReporting has faced enormous challenges. Yet, we’ve confronted them head-on and emerged even stronger.
Broken Borders: Changing the Parameters of the Media Battlefield
This past year has seen HonestReporting changing the very parameters of the media battlefield. Back in November, our staff started asking questions about some of the photos taken during the early hours of October 7. How did international media have photographers at the scene inside Israel? Who were these photographers and how did they manage to capture the carnage up close? We couldn’t have imagined the impact our questions and the resulting content would have.
Our Broken Borders exposé had the immediate result of removing clearly compromised Gazan journalists from the media battlefield, putting the entire global media on notice. We set out to make it unacceptable to hire Gazan reporters and photojournalists without doing due diligence on whether they are willing or able to carry out their jobs objectively. And in many cases, we succeeded.
For example:
- AP and CNN cut ties with freelance photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah after we had questioned his early morning presence at the Israel-Gaza border and inside Israeli communities. A photo we produced showing him being kissed on the cheek by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar also raised serious concerns.
And here is footage of Eslaiah after he crossed into Israel and took photos of a burning Israeli tank. He then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
Note that he is not identifiable as a member of the press. But AP & CNN deemed it acceptable to use his services. pic.twitter.com/fA0VI2df2i
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 8, 2023
- Reuters distanced itself from freelance photographer Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa after we found an Instagram video of him on October 7 appearing to urge Gazans to cross over into Israel.
Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa on Oct. 7: “I saw at least 50 female settlers that young people were taking.”
The “female settlers” this @Reuters freelancer is dehumanizing are the innocent Israeli women who were kidnapped, raped & murdered on Oct. 7 by Hamas & Gazans. 🧵 https://t.co/kukpwzOQOv
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 9, 2024
The enormous interest on social media as well as the reaction from media outlets around the globe certainly made this the biggest story we have ever dealt with as HonestReporting’s content became the headlines and HR staff were interviewed and quoted in numerous places. That some of the coverage was decidedly hostile merely demonstrated how the international media were circling the wagons in the face of the questions hanging over some of their number and those in their employ.
HonestReporting has blazed a trail for a new industry of investigative work as many others have followed our lead and put open-source intelligence to work, exposing the agendas of those who have provided some of the most one-sided and biased coverage of Israel. And it’s led to real tangible results.
For example:
- As a result of HonestReporting’s expose of his anti-Israel and antisemitic social media history, the main reporter covering the war in Gaza for the AP, Issam Adwan was reassigned pending an investigation. Adwan’s byline has not been seen on AP’s Israel coverage since.
🚨 BREAKING: @FoxNews reports @AP Gaza correspondent Issam Adwan has been removed from reporting duties as a result of HonestReporting’s expose of his anti-Israel and antisemitic social media posts.https://t.co/dUWfg6h0rs pic.twitter.com/zVQm5bdYZ8
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 13, 2023
- CNN announced that it would no longer use a Gaza freelancer Abdel Qader Sabbah after HonestReporting exposed his ties to Hamas.
🚨 News Flash: Not All Journalists Are Who They Seem
Did you know some Gaza “journalists” have ties to Hamas? Meet Abdel Qader Sabbah, a freelancer who worked for CNN until his connections to Hamas were exposed. This isn’t just an exception—it’s the rule. pic.twitter.com/kXq3u5FrQl
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 7, 2024
While Associated Press, AFP, Reuters and CNN have all had to sever ties or disassociate themselves from compromised Palestinian media employees, there are still international media outlets who trying to get away with hiring journalists who peddle antisemitism or support terrorism. And that includes Palestinian media workers with uncomfortably close relations with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
HonestReporting continues campaigning for accountability concerning those journalists who remain in place despite the evidence against them.
These include:
- Palestinian journalist Abeer Ayyoub, who works for the Wall Street Journal and used her X account on October 7 to spread terrorist propaganda and fake news, as Hamas massacred thousands of Israelis.
- Veteran Reuters video journalist in the West Bank, Hamuda Hassan, who shared terrorist propaganda on October 7 and spread antisemitic content referring to “the ZioNazi Israeli occupation.”
- CBS News journalist in Gaza, Marwan al-Ghoul, who praised terrorists at an official event of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and had contacts with terrorists as a member of the Gaza City municipality council.
We will keep reminding both the media outlets and their audiences until it is no longer acceptable to keep so-called journalists like these on the payroll.
Our impact has also been felt in the legal sphere. HonestReporting’s work has inspired a number of legal cases brought by Israelis and Americans directly impacted by October 7. This includes a lawsuit that accuses the AP of “materially supporting terrorism” by paying “alleged Hamas-associated” photojournalists for images captured during and immediately after the October 7 massacres. The lawsuit focuses mainly on Hassan Eslaiah, the freelance photojournalist who featured so prominently in our “Broken Borders” exposé.
Such has been the concern of the media industry that HonestReporting even impacted the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. While Reuters picked up the prize for Breaking News Photography, according to Ynet News, the Pulitzer Prizes administrator said that Reuters “had willingly shared the HonestReporting website’s report [on Gazan photojournalists infiltrating Israel on Oct. 7] upon entering the competition for review by the award committee.”
We’ve continued to expose more and more journalists over the past year, conclusively proving that the coverage coming out of Gaza is so compromised as to raise doubts over every mainstream media report being filed from the territory.
Fighting on the Social Media Battlefield
But it’s not enough to do the hard work exposing what’s really going on with the media coverage. Reaching a critical mass of people on social media has never been so important. As much as the fighting has taken place inside Gaza and more recently over Lebanon, never before has the connection between the physical battlefield and the battlefield of the media been more significant. Social media, in particular, has been at the forefront of the fight for hearts and minds as the younger generation continues to get their news about the conflict from platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
HonestReporting’s social media profile was already rapidly expanding during the course of 2023. After October 7, it hit the stratosphere. From 3.5 million impressions across all platforms during the previous month, October 2023 saw us hit over 56 million, while engagement went up from 0.5 million to over 11 million. 2024 has continued to see impressive metrics. As we’ve produced more and more quality social media content addressing the big issues, so millions of people have seen and engaged with that content. We’ve reached beyond the choir to audiences whose only exposure to Israel and the Middle East may have been via some of the most hostile and even antisemitic accounts.
That’s why HonestReporting has been taking on some of the biggest influencers who have been spreading some of the biggest falsehoods about Israel and the conflict, including: Dan Bilzerian, John Oliver, Bella Hadid, AOC & Nick Fuentes, Mehdi Hasan, Michael Moore, John Stewart & Christiane Amanpour, Joe Rogan, and Jackson Hinkle.
While social media may deal in soundbites, we’ve also produced important longer-form content. After nearly a year of constant Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, Israel finally and decisively responded. From some of the media coverage, however, it appeared as if Israel had initiated and was responsible for the outbreak of hostilities. That’s why HonestReporting’s collaboration with LA-based music and pop culture journalist Eve Barlow as far back as March 2024 demonstrated how we were able to preempt the issue and prepare an audience to understand well in advance why Israel might be forced to take action against Hezbollah.
Taking On the Big Issues
There have been so many issues that October 7 and the resulting conflict have thrown up during the past year. And the impact on diaspora Jewish communities around the world has been enormous, including a tidal wave of antisemitism. So many people have looked for usable and digestible information that they can deploy, whether online or even communicating with friends and workplace colleagues.
Issues have included:
- Debunking the Israeli “white settler” myth
- The alleged “famine” in Gaza
- Who is behind anti-Israel college campus protests?
- The inflated civilian death toll in Gaza
- Israel falsely accused of blocking aid to Gaza
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We would all wish that we could turn the clock back to October 6, 2023. While we can only look at the past year with immense grief, we can at least be proud of the impact that HonestReporting’s work has produced during this period. The results that we have achieved on the media battlefield have been tangible and have the potential for long-lasting change.
This war will eventually come to an end. But as we’ve learned over the years, anti-Israel media bias and its impact on both Israel and Jews in other countries will continue. And HonestReporting will be there to confront it.
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