{"id":517785,"date":"2021-05-17T12:20:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T16:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=517785"},"modified":"2021-05-17T12:20:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T16:20:59","slug":"flashback-former-associated-press-writer-explains-how-outlet-helps-hamas-craft-anti-israel-narratives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/flashback-former-associated-press-writer-explains-how-outlet-helps-hamas-craft-anti-israel-narratives\/","title":{"rendered":"FLASHBACK: Former Associated Press Writer Explains How Outlet Helps Hamas Craft Anti-Israel Narratives"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflashback-former-associated-press-writer-explains-how-outlet-helps-hamas-craft-anti-israel-narratives%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=517785&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1232912578.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>As the media engages in the latest round of blaming Israel solely for the conflict in Gaza, it is a good time to remember what members of the media have admitted in the past about the way \u201cjournalists\u201d cover this story.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/associated-press-laments-loss-of-gaza-bureau-which-shared-office-space-with-terrorist-organization-hamas\">destroyed<\/a> a high-rise building in Gaza that, among other businesses, housed the Associated Press\u2019 Gaza Bureau, as well as office space for other media outlets, including the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera. Israel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-administration-shown-smoking-gun-evidence-proving-terrorists-in-ap-office-building-report\">says<\/a> the building was used by terrorist organization Hamas to house military intelligence offices and more. AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt claimed on Saturday that the outlet was \u201cshocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP\u2019s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza,\u201d implying they may have been the target rather than Hamas. On that same day, Pruitt claimed the AP \u201chad no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building\u201d and said such a suggestion \u201cis something we actively check to the best of our ability\u201d because the outlet \u201cwould never knowingly put our journalists at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But back in 2014, former AP reporter Matti Friedman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2014\/11\/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story\/383262\/\">wrote<\/a> in The Atlantic on the relationship between Hamas and reporters in Gaza. Friedman specifically notes how the AP dutifully reported Hamas\u2019 spin on the situation in Gaza to craft a narrative that Israel is an oppressive nation and Palestine are innocent victims:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"13.895652173913\">\n<p><em>During my time at the AP, we helped Hamas get this point across with a school of reporting that might be classified as \u201cSurprising Signs of Moderation\u201d (a direct precursor to the \u201cMuslim Brotherhood Is Actually Liberal\u201d school that enjoyed a brief vogue in Egypt). In one of my favorite stories, \u201cMore Tolerant Hamas\u201d (December 11, 2011), reporters\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/hamas-gaza-says-learning-arab-spring-184847515.html\">quoted<\/a>\u00a0a Hamas spokesman informing readers that the movement\u2019s policy was that \u201cwe are not going to dictate anything to anyone,\u201d and another Hamas leader saying the movement had \u201clearned it needs to be more tolerant of others.\u201d Around the same time, I was informed by the bureau\u2019s senior editors that our Palestinian reporter in Gaza couldn\u2019t possibly provide critical coverage of Hamas because doing so would put him in danger.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Friedman admitted back then what is reported today only by right-leaning outlets: That Hamas stores its weapons in civilian areas and uses those weapons to provoke Israel, getting civilians killed in the process. Media outlets then cover the deaths as being Israel\u2019s fault, when Hamas strategically places its weapons to cause maximum casualties to civilians. Hamas <em>knows<\/em> the media will cover the story this way, and uses it to its advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Further, Friedman wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"21.856719952635\">\n<p><em>Hamas understood that journalists would not only accept as fact the Hamas-reported civilian death toll\u2014relayed through the UN or through something called the \u201cGaza Health Ministry,\u201d an office controlled by Hamas\u2014but would make those numbers the center of coverage. Hamas understood that reporters could be intimidated when necessary and that they would not report the intimidation; Western news organizations tend to see no ethical imperative to inform readers of the restrictions shaping their coverage in repressive states or other dangerous areas. In the war\u2019s aftermath, the NGO-UN-media alliance could be depended upon to unleash the organs of the international community on Israel, and to leave the jihadist group alone.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When Hamas\u2019s leaders surveyed their assets before this summer\u2019s round of fighting, they knew that among those assets was the international press. The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby\u2014and the AP wouldn\u2019t report it, not even in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/evidence-growing-hamas-used-residential-areas-051342974.html\">AP articles<\/a>\u00a0about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas. (This happened.) Hamas fighters would burst into the AP\u2019s Gaza bureau and threaten the staff\u2014and the AP wouldn\u2019t report it. (This also happened.) Cameramen waiting outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City would film the arrival of civilian casualties and then, at a signal from an official, turn off their cameras when wounded and dead fighters came in, helping Hamas maintain the illusion that only civilians were dying. (This too happened; the information comes from multiple sources with firsthand knowledge of these incidents.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Friedman\u2019s first-hand claims fly in the face of the AP\u2019s recent statements about their office space in Gaza. The AP\u2019s current claim is that it didn\u2019t know Hamas also used the building and that it would \u201cnever knowingly\u201d put its journalists at risk, but Friedman writes of a symbiotic relationship between the terrorist organization and the AP. How are we supposed to believe the AP didn\u2019t know Hamas was operating in the same building when the news outlet has such a close relationship with the terrorist organization?<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the media engages in the latest round of blaming Israel solely for the conflict in Gaza, it is a good time to remember what members of the media have &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278311,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1232912578.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"FLASHBACK: Former Associated Press Writer Explains How Outlet Helps Hamas Craft Anti-Israel Narratives","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1232912578.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"FLASHBACK: Former Associated Press Writer Explains How Outlet Helps Hamas Craft Anti-Israel Narratives","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}