I wrote about one of the Gaza-based photographers working for the Associated Press in “Put Abed Khaled to bed” and raised questions about the veracity of his work. I had been thinking about the AP and Reuters photographers whom I wrote about in the Weekly Standard article “He didn’t give at the office” (“he” being Yasser Arafat). I thought their work was obviously fraudulent.
Staff at HonestReporting now raise questions about the Gaza-based mainstream media stringers or freelancers who covered the 10/7 massacre in apparent collaboration with Hamas. The featured HonestReporting story runs under the headline “Photographers Without Borders: AP & Reuters Pictures of Hamas Atrocities Raise Ethical Questions.” Once again, the AP and Reuters figure prominently in the story. This is the opening:
On October 7, Hamas terrorists were not the only ones who documented the war crimes they had committed during their deadly rampage across southern Israel. Some of their atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border area raises serious ethical questions.
What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.
In an update to its story HonestReporting includes this interesting selfie via X/Twitter.
In the hours following our expose, new material is still coming to light concerning Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah whom both AP & CNN used on Oct. 7.
Here he is pictured with Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar. https://t.co/S9pXeIGaFq pic.twitter.com/RmEZU5RsM8
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 8, 2023
The HonestReporting story includes a Reactions Update in which the media outlets themselves deny advance knowledge of the Hamas attach (which HonestReporting does not allege). HonestReporting responds: “We quite rightly raised some serious ethical issues regarding news outlets’ association with these freelancers and asked important and relevant questions that everyone deserves answers to.”
I urge interested readers to check out the whole thing here.
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