Another blow for journalistic integrity – giving awards to terrorists and terror supporters masking themselves as journalists.
On Wednesday, the News and Documentary Emmys Awards did not shy away from it. This is what the world has come to, and we must wake up to this fact.
“It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive” is a powerful documentation of daily life for displaced people in Gaza – from a surface level point of view. It’s an approximately eight minute video on YouTube that documents one activist, Bisan Owda’s experience as a displaced person on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital. The biggest kicker is the moment when Owda cries out as she says she narrowly avoided death after the IAF struck a hospital entrance.
But when one considers all the facts on the ground, the realization of a certain fabrication of facts and distortion of reality come to light. It’s biased reporting, from Al Jazeera and a woman with terror ties.
If you missed the News Emmys, here’s the scoop:
Besides the terrorists honored throughout, Bisan Owda won an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Hard News Feature Story.’
But just a decade ago, she was leading PFLP rallies in Gaza.Journalism is not a crime, but terrorism certainly is. pic.twitter.com/Qwhs1kxXfz
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 26, 2024
Bisan Owda, 27, was known for her cultural content before October 7, but she was also tied to The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as recently as 2019. The PFLP is recognized as a terror organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel for its part in 1970’s global terror attacks, as well as the First and Second Intifadas.
🧵 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐰𝐝𝐚 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞́
Bisan Owda, the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated queen of Gaza propaganda, is a member of the PFLP terrorist organization.
Here she is in 2015 leading a rally celebrating the PFLP’s 48th anniversary, looking very journalist-y pic.twitter.com/T7Izziqs5w
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) July 27, 2024
According to this article cited, Owda still supports actions of the PFLP today.
𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 @mrconfino 𝐚𝐧𝐝 @EmilieJger2 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐅𝐋𝐏 𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞
Rough translation: “[Bisan Owda] explains that it is her in the video from 2015, that she did host an annual meeting of the PFLP, and that she still generally supports what she… pic.twitter.com/WVODi1tit3
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) September 9, 2024
Owda, in association with AJ+ (Al Jazeera Plus) won an Emmy for “It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive” in the short form category for outstanding hard news feature story. This, along with two other Al Jazeera wins in the Outstanding Climate, Environment & Weather Coverage as well as Outstanding Feature Story in Spanish categories.
This is the moment when AJ+ representatives made their “thank you” statements on stage:
The #NewsEmmys Award for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form goes to It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive | Aj+ Reports (@ajplus). pic.twitter.com/lKTDR9sfys
— News & Documentary Emmys (@newsemmys) September 26, 2024
Throughout the ceremony, it was said three times that more than 100 Palestinian journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, but what was missing?
Conveniently, how many of these ‘journalists’ were affiliated with terror groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad was missing from the acknowledgment. Omission of this kind of information is dangerous and of course, misleads viewers.
This isn’t the first and only award granted to Owda or to ‘journalists’ in Gaza for their ‘coverage’ of the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the subsequent war.
Owda also won two more awards for the same report, including a Peabody Award. Among others include AP’s win for Picture of the Year Award back in March for its disturbing image of murdered Israeli Shani Louk on the back of a pickup truck packed with Hamas terrorists on October 7.
The other side to this is that while Hollywood was busy rewarding terrorists on Wednesday, Berlin’s German Television Awards was honoring Jewish actors and creators across the pond at the same time.
“Die Zweiflers,” a miniseries about a Jewish family in Frankfurt with a delicatessen empire, won four awards. The cast of the show stars a list of both Jewish and Israeli actors.
What can we take away from all this? Two things: 1) No, journalism is not a crime, but terrorism is, and 2) Maybe it’s time to shift focus away from traditional awards.
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Image Credits
– Featured Graphic: ITU Pictures via Flickr
– Embedded Image: ddp/Cornelius via Reuters Connect
