The taxpayer-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) sent out an email blast warning reporters not to use the term “terrorist” while reporting on the conflict involving Israel and Hamas.
In an email issued on Saturday, George Achi, CBC News’ Director of Journalistic Standards, instructed staff members not to use the term “terrorist” to describe militants, troops, or anybody else. Achi claimed it is a concept that is heavily politicized and integral to the narrative, even when citing a government or source that refers to combatants as “terrorists.”
Reports show the American NGO StopAntisemitism exposed Achi’s email.
Achi’s statements follow the revelation by Israel on Sunday morning of video and picture evidence showing a female hostage in the Gaza Strip with bloodied jeans, the deaths of elderly people at a bus stop, and a large group of civilians murdered at an outdoor concert for “peace.”
On X, the official Israeli Twitter account said that although it was a difficult decision, the world must know what Israel is facing. Hamas are not “freedom fighters.” They are terrorists like ISIS, rebranding the same strategies, killing off children, capturing grandmas, and desecrating the slain.
A report shows the BBC and the New York Times, among others, have been under fire in the past few days for early reporting on the Israeli conflict. In the first moments of the Hamas attack, the BBC hosted a speech by Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, during which Alareer claimed Israel was conducting genocide without so much as an interjection from the host.
Among Alareer’s numerous online antisemitic comments is a comparison of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system to Nazi Germany’s gas chambers. The scholar once remarked that Jews were the adversary of moral people all over the globe.
The inclusion of items in the New York Times’ war coverage reducing Hamas’ targeting of civilian fatalities and hostage-taking was also criticized by commentators.
On Saturday morning, journalist Yascha Mounk posted that X had deteriorated dramatically. However, the sad reality is that after just five minutes on X, one may get a taste of the brutality of what has recently occurred in Israel. But reading the front pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian for five minutes will not provide you any insight.
