In over three weeks of extensive coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, National Public Radio has managed to commit an impressive amount of journalistic sins, misleading tens of millions of devoted listeners across America.
Since the atrocious Hamas massacre on October 7, NPR has been overwhelmingly focused on the victimization of Palestinians, while interviewing biased individuals, omitting critical facts and including outright distortions.
One of NPR’s most egregious reports from this period, which includes all of the above, is Daniel Estrin’s “Examining who carried out the brutal violence in Israel three weeks ago.” In this despicable attempt to humanize the perpetrators of the deadly carnage, rape and kidnaping, listeners need to suffer through empathy-inducing descriptions such as this:
On October 8, a militant returned to Gaza with Mohammed’s cellphone and personal effects and told Mohammed’s family what happened. He said Mohammed had made it a mile or two inside Israel, and an Israeli aircraft shot him – five bullets to the chest, one near the neck. Mohammed recited a prayer before he died.
The neighbor told us Mohammed had led a pretty ordinary life. He didn’t finish his high school matriculation exam. He worked as a taxi driver. He got married, had lots of friends and family at his wedding, started a business selling food products. But everyone in the family and neighborhood knew he belonged to the militant wing of the Iranian-aligned Islamic Jihad.
NPR’s Estrin then turns to interview Mkhaimar Abusada, whom he introduces as “a political analyst” in Gaza. In fact, Abusada is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, who has called for violence against Israelis. Surely, it’s a relevant piece of information to mention when NPR gives him the platform to say: “Hating the Jews or hating Israel as an occupier…that probably explain the brutality that took place on the 7th of October”.
At the end of the report, Estrin includes an edited version of a phone call from a terrorist to his parents in Gaza on October 7. The full recording of the call, released by Israel on October 25, clearly includes the terrorist’s father congratulating him after the son boasts of killing ten Jews. NPR’s version — through Estrin’s narration — omits this. Instead, it makes it look like the family wanted the son to return home and never supported his actions. It even goes as far as evoking empathy for their plight under Israeli bombardment.
ESTRIN: Israel released this recording it says is a phone call during the attacks from a son to his family back in Gaza. “Ten Jews. I killed 10, Mom.”
ESTRIN: You hear a woman crying, “oh, my son, may God protect you.” A man’s voice says, “enough. Come back, come back.”
ESTRIN: “What do you mean, come back,” the son says, “there is no coming back. It’s either martyrdom or victory.”
ESTRIN: Was he killed or detained in Israel? Did he return to his family in Gaza? Israel hasn’t said. What we know is that his family, like every other family in Gaza and Israel, now face the consequences of yet another war.
Biased Interviewees
Another example of victimization of Palestinians coupled with a biased interview and omission of facts can be found in this report about a recent Gaza blackout. The piece focuses on the predicament of Gazans who were cut off from internet and phone communications last weekend under Israeli bombardment.
But it fails to mention that hundreds of Israeli families have not been able to contact their loved ones who have been held hostage by Hamas for over three weeks. It also includes Hind Khoudari, who is presented as a “journalist,” as one of its interviewees. It does not mention that Khoudari is actually a Hamas collaborator who tipped off the terrorist organization to arrest a group of Palestinian peace activists:
And still, Hamas collaborator Hind Khoudary continues to appear on mainstream media, this time on @NPR.
Aren't the media even bothered that she tipped off Hamas to arrest a group of Palestinian peace activists?https://t.co/bcAzGEP5xC https://t.co/iXrW5GjYFt pic.twitter.com/jvMtBq6exP
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 31, 2023
Related Reading: Washington Post, AP Interview Gaza ‘Journalist’ and Hamas Collaborator Who Snitched on Palestinian Peace Activists
NPR also gave a prominent amount of airtime to “Mideast expert” Yousef Munayyer, without mentioning that he was the Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and has advocated for an end to the Jewish state.
It’s no wonder, then, that Munayyer contextualizes terrorism by saying things like:
The Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them – they’ve been refugees living inside of Gaza for 75 years. And this is, of course, compounded by decades of military occupation and, in the last decade and a half, a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, which has held 2 million Palestinians there hostage.
What’s unacceptable, however, is that NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe — who held the interview a day after the horrendous massacre in southern Israel — failed to challenge Munayyer. She could have said that in the past decade and a half, there was no siege of Gaza but an Israeli-Egyptian blockade with controlled movement of people and goods.
Related Reading: Time Op-Ed: “Equality” Means No Jewish State
Propaganda By Omission
In the realm of victimization of Palestinians and omission of facts, two NPR reports stand out in which the ignoring of critical information led to the demonization of Israel instead of highlighting its high ethical standards.
In a report lamenting the woes of thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza who are “trapped” in the West Bank, NPR’s team fails to mention how Hamas has exploited the Israeli work permit policy. The constant flow of cash provided by such permits solidified Hamas’ hold on the Gaza economy and supported its military activities leading up to October 7. By ignoring this fact, NPR doesn’t only tell half the story, but also twists it to blame Israel and excuse Hamas.
Another example is a report following Israel’s targeting of terrorists under a mosque in Jenin on October 22. The reporter, Becky Sullivan, went into great lengths to describe the suffering of two Palestinian families living near the mosque, who were not physically harmed. Nowhere does she mention the risk posed by terrorists operating in residential areas, nor the precision of the surgical Israeli strike. Instead, listeners are led to believe that Israel is to blame for the suffering of these families because of what “it calls terrorism”:
Israel says it is targeting militants and that its actions are necessary to counter what it calls terrorism.
In another report on the same story, NPR’s headline even says that Israeli airstrikes are “targeting Palestinians,” and not terrorists.
More distorted headlines can be found here: “Human rights expert says Hamas and Israel both committed possible war crimes,” even though the expert did not say that; and here: “Threats against Palestinian, Muslim and Jewish people has spiked since the war began,” although the article details only threats against Palestinians/Muslims.
It should be noted that NPR did air a few reports about the suffering of Israelis. But from a bird’s eye view, it doesn’t even come close to the amount of coverage dedicated to Gaza and the West Bank.
NPR’s focus on a so-called “human angle” which is overwhelmingly one-sided is poor journalism. But when it deteriorates into humanization of terrorists, biased interviews, and sins of omission and distortion, it’s nothing less than implicit anti-Israeli propaganda.
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