Shooting Down a Smear

Four news outlets strongly denied on Thursday having had prior knowledge of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, after the Israeli government demanded answers from the press and stoked questions about their credibility over a thinly sourced report from an agenda-driven group that insinuated news organizations knew about the looming assault. The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, and CNN all swiftly issued statements strongly pushing back against the report from the staunchly pro-Israel media watchdog, HonestReporting, that claimed photographers for the news outlets were present during the initial attack. Two of the outlets, the AP and CNN, however, said they had severed ties with the freelance photographer Hassan Eslaiah after he was identified in the report as having been present with Hamas militants during the heinous attack on the Jewish state.

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