2024 - A Year in Which Journalism Betrayed Truth, Ethics & Journalistic Integrity

The past year has been a devastating indictment of modern journalism’s ability, willing, or lack thereof to fulfill its most basic responsibilities. Following the October 7th, 2023, Hamas massacre, which saw over 1,200 Israelis murdered in the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, much of the international media has woefully failed to meet the moment.

Instead of holding terror and actual genocidal intent to account, pursuing truth and balance, many outlets have knowingly or otherwise, been complicit in spreading false narratives, propaganda, and a gross distortion of reality, with dire repercussions. The coverage of the war in Gaza that followed the darkest day in modern Israel’s history, has been riddled with bias, disinformation, and omissions that betray journalism’s ethical foundations.

A Standard Betrayed

Journalism is supposed to be a cornerstone of democracy, a vehicle for truth and accountability. At its best, journalism shines a light in dark places, offers context to chaos, and equips citizens to understand the world and key events. In the past year fifteen months however, the coverage of Israel and Gaza has fallen painfully short of these ideals. Media outlets have amplified unverified claims, cynically relied on Hamas-controlled sources, and ignored critical context, all while sidelining or minimising the experiences of Israeli victims and hostages, both those still languishing in Hamas dungeons and terror tunnels as well as those who have been executed while in captivity.

BBC guidelines oblige its journalists to achieve 'due impartiality' in all output, with news journalists having a 'particular responsibility' to uphold the principle on social media as well. In a clear breach of these guidelines, The UK’s public broadcaster, perhaps the most respected news organisation in the world today, has shown a blatant bias in its reporting.

BBC Arabic, for instance, has been accused of spreading Hamas propaganda, referring to October 7th as a "military operation" rather than a massacre and failing to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization despite its designation as such by the UK government. BBC Arabic staff have been posting and sharing blatantly biases and anti-Semitic posts, and even supporting the October 7th massacre, and more, with zero repercussions from their employer.

Some of the BBC’s most senior and high-profile reporters, have delivered coverage that downplays Hamas’s atrocities while casting Israel’s military actions in the harshest possible light.

The BBC’s International editor Jeremy Bowen, well known for his anti Israel bias, reported that the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza was flattened on October 17th, 2023, by Israeli bombing, killing 500. This turned out to be wholly inaccurate. The hospital was actually hit by a PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) rocket that misfired, with far less casualties, and zero Israeli involvement. But the damage was done.  When confronted in an interview in the BBC’s own “Behind the Stories” program, about his misreporting, Bowen dismissed the incident, saying “No, I don’t regret one thing in my reporting, because I think I was measured throughout, I didn’t race to judgement.” When the interviewer points out that Bowen falsely reported that the hospital building had been flattened, he says: “Oh yeah, well I got that wrong.” Of course, Bowen wasn’t the only journalist to “get that wrong”!

Sky News has fared no better. After a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 playing children in the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams,  Sky Special Correspondent Alex Crawford’s went to great lengths to highlight Hezbollah’s denials of responsibility, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary she then went even further in her bias and disingenuity, writing the following, “The war has entered a very dangerous stage and the Lebanese authorities who’re in direct contact with their Hezbollah partners are urging restraint whilst encouraging the Americans to leverage pressure on the Israelis to reign in their lust for revenge”. Just one example of Crawford breaching Sky guidelines, not to mention basic journalistic ethics and standards.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera, which openly promotes Hamas’s narrative, has employed individuals with direct ties to Hamas and PIJ, presenting them as journalists. That such “reporting” is then picked up by Western outlets like CNN undermines not only their credibility but the very idea of journalism itself.

The Hamas Propaganda Machine Owes Western Journalists a Great Deal

The reliance on Gaza’s Health Ministry for casualty figures has been one of the most glaring failures. The ministry is controlled by Hamas, a fact known to journalists but rarely acknowledged in their reporting. Figures provided by Hamas are routinely presented as gospel, despite the group’s clear interest in inflating civilian casualties and obscuring its own losses. Hamas figures do not separate combatants from noncombatants.

A recent report authored by military expert Andrew Fox, for the Henry Jackson Society has revealed that...

1.        Hamas listed men as women to increase female casualties

2.        Registered adults as children to increase child casualties

3.        There is a disproportionate number of deaths of fighting age men (15-45). Yes, Hamas uses child soldiers

4.        Hamas included at least 5,000 natural deaths in the casualty figures

5.        The media has underreported combatant deaths. The IDF claims to have killed circa 20,000 Hamas & PIJ fighters

The rocket blast at the Al Ahli Hospital on October 17th 2023, was a particularly egregious example, when Hamas claimed that an Israeli airstrike hit a hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people. Within hours, the major outlets BBC, Reuters, and CNN ran with the story, accepting Hamas’s narrative without evidence.

Subsequent investigations revealed that the explosion was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket and that the casualty numbers were grossly exaggerated. Yet, the initial headlines caused irreparable damage, fuelling anti-Israel protests and incitement across the globe. Even now, people still believe that Israel was responsible. This was by no means the only incident. There have been far too many incidences of misreporting, false narratives and blatant bias.

Silencing Israeli Victims and Hostages

While the plight of Gazans has dominated coverage, the stories of Israeli victims and hostages have been conspicuously absent. 251 hostages, including infants, children and the elderly, were kidnapped and held in Hamas dungeons and terror tunnel. Today there are 96 men women and children still languishing in hellish conditions. Nobody actually knows how many of them are still alive. 

The Hamas tunnel network, perhaps better described as the “Gaza metro” is larger than the London Underground. It's used as fortified havens for Hamas leaders and fighters. Ordinary Gazans, however, are barred from seeking refuge in the tunnels, where Hamas cynically chooses to hide behind its civilian population and leave them in the line of fire. It uses hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities as terror bases and rocket launching pads, rendering them legitimate military targets. Although wholly aware, the international media panders to the terrorists and largely ignore this grotesque exploitation, focusing instead on accusing Israel of purposely targeting civilians.

Where are the profiles of the Israeli families torn apart by the October 7th massacre? Where is the outrage over the torture and mutilation of hostages? The silence is deafening and speaks to a disturbing double standard in how journalists assign value to human suffering.

Perverting the Narrative

On the first anniversary of the October 7th massacre news outlets across the globe, rather than mark the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, chose to pay lip service to the rape, mutilation, immolation, torture, mass murder, and kidnap, preferring to emphasise the false claims of genocide and war crimes against the Jewish state.

• On its X (Twitter) page, Sky News chose to commemorate October 7 by publishing an in-depth look at the destruction in Gaza, deeming it “a year since the war in Gaza began. ”https://x.com/i/status/1843200807287898441

• The Independent’s front page headlined “365 days of horror since October 7,” was a mashup of different numbers related to the war in Gaza, but only featured one number related to the Israeli victims of Hamas. 

• On the eve of October 7, The Guardian saw fit to publish a grotesque op-ed by Naomi Klein, which accused Israel of turning the trauma of October 7 into a weapon.

Just last week, quoting Associated Press journalists, PBS News led with the headline, “Israeli troops burn northern Gaza hospital after forcibly removing staff and patients, officials say”. Who are these officials? Hamas! Once again pandering to terrorists, while promoting a false narrative and propaganda to demonize Israel.

The Role of the United Nations and NGOs

Journalists are not alone in shaping the anti-Israel narrative. UN agencies, representatives and so-called human rights organizations have played a pivotal role in spreading false claims, in an attempt to demonize and delegitimize Israel.

From the outset, the UN has treated Israel like a bastard child it wishes would just disappear.  

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA is a wholly compromised entity which has always been part of the problem and not the solution. It supports, facilitates and even actively participates in terror. It provides succour to Hamas and PIJ, the same terrorists that not only committed the slaughter of October 7th, but also brutalizes, exploits and sacrifices ordinary Gazan, the very people UNWRA is supposed to help.

In Lebanon, it turns out that, Fathi al-Sharif (now deceased), was the Head of Hamas in Lebanon, as well as the Director of an UNRWA secondary school and head of the UNRWA Teachers Union in Lebanon.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in essence the UN Human Rights Council’s monitor, tasked with investigating “Israel’s violations” in the Palestinian territories, routinely trumpets Hamas lies and propaganda, accuses Israel of genocide, portrays Israelis as Nazis, complains that America is “subjugated by the Jewish Lobby,” and rationalises, even denies the Hamas atrocities of October 7th.

When it comes to NGOs...

Amnesty International’s recently published a report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. In line with their history of anti-Israel bias, even hatred and anti-Semitism, the report consistently uses Hamas lies and propaganda, baseless and manipulated claims, where its sources are highly suspect. It also uses goes to great efforts to ignore and even abdicate Hamas of responsibility for October 7th and the ongoing oppression, crimes and brutalization of ordinary Palestinians. As Hamas steals much needed aid to its own people, Amnesty is only too happy to follow the terrorists’ lead and accuse Israel of blocking aid and starving Gazans, a total perversion of the facts. 

The media has given undue weight and credibility, even cooperating with to UN & NGO false accusations, often ignoring the unprecedented measures Israel has taken to minimize civilian casualties. Highly credible military experts, such as John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point, and General Sir John McColl, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, have noted that no army in history has made more effort to avoid harming civilians in urban warfare. In an article he penned for Newsweek, referring to the unprecedented effort Israel has made to minimise civilian casualties, Spencer states clearly that, “Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare”. Spencer suggests that When interviewed General Sir John stated, “I went there sceptical” and “the IDF are doing their absolute level best to minimise casualties”. But such assessments fly in the face of media bias and rarely make the headlines.

The Real-Life Consequences of Biased Reporting

The impact of this biased reporting extends far beyond the battlefield. Across the Western world, anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed, fuelled by the media’s failure to challenge Hamas’s lies and propaganda, or point out its genocidal rhetoric and agenda.

Street demonstrations calling for the eradication of Israel have taken place in major cities, with chants of, “from the river to the sea” normalized in public discourse. On university campuses, Jewish students face harassment and intimidation, their safety compromised by a toxic blend of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

This incitement has all too real-life consequences. Anti-Semitism is at levels not seen since WW2. Jews have been attacked in the streets of London, Paris, and New York. Synagogues have been vandalized. In Melbourne Australia, a synagogue was firebombed, twice. Jewish-owned businesses boycotted. Jews are being ostracized and cancelled in academia, the arts, medicine, and other industries. The media’s role in amplifying the Hamas narrative has fanned the flames of Jew hatred and emboldened these acts, creating an environment where anti-Semitism is not only tolerated but legitimized. Dangerously, it also strengthens the terrorist and encourages other bad actors, knowing that they can manipulate and exploit western media to serve their nefarious interests.

Lost Credibility

On numerous occasions, the BBC has admitted that it cannot verify many of its reports from Gaza. By example, back in September 2024, the British broadcaster admitted to not making “sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence”. It then issued an apology for broadcasting an unverified claim by Hamas, alleging that the Israeli army engaged in "summary executions" of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This must be seen as a damning acknowledgement of failure by the BBC, where this is not an isolated incident, rather an all-too-common occurrence.  And it’s not just the BBC. If the world’s most respected broadcasters cannot ensure the accuracy and integrity of their reporting, is quality journalism dead in the water?

The employment of Hamas operatives as so-called journalists by networks like Al Jazeera, and as freelancers for Western outlets, highlights the depths of this crisis. When propaganda is treated as credible reporting, the public’s ability to discern fact from fiction is eroded.

The credibility of journalism itself is at stake. By failing to uphold basic standards of accuracy and impartiality, traditional media outlets are losing credibility along with the trust of their audiences. Audiences will go elsewhere for their news, which only exacerbates the problem as algorithms on social media, with zero concern for the facts, will ensure users only see what they “like”, that which complies with their already existing world view. 

A Desperate Need for Accountability

It is not too late for the traditional media to redeem itself, but it requires a fundamental shift in editorial policy, how this conflict is covered, along with a zero-tolerance approach towards breaches of guidelines. Journalists are human beings and of course entitled to their opinions. However, they need to park their personal bias. They must abandon their reliance on Hamas-controlled sources, scrutinize claims with the journalistic rigor they demand, and provide balanced coverage that includes the voices of all stake holders. 

These must include Israeli victims. And here, we are not just talking abut Israeli Jews. There are Israelis from across the full spectrum of society among the victims, including Muslims, Druze, Christians and others. There are also foreigners caught up in the brutal tragedy of October 7th.  Media owners must demand far higher standards and levels of professionalism both from their editorial staff, and from their reporters, rejecting populism, sensationalism and bias, in favour of accurate and balanced exploration and coverage of the facts, from credible sources.

“The role of the journalist is to seek truth, provide a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues, and act independently.” – Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

The responsibility of journalism is to inform based upon facts and credible evidence, not to incite and inflame. The past year has been a dark chapter for journalism, one that hopefully, future generations will study as a cautionary tale. The media’s complicity in pandering to terrorists, spreading false narratives, lies and propaganda is simply unacceptable.  Its sidelining or even erasure of Israeli victims, and the atrocities of October 7th that began this year of war, death and destruction is as contemptible as it is lamentable. 

Failure to uphold basic ethical journalistic standards have caused immeasurable harm and only serve to perpetuate the suffering of all affected by the conflict. If mainstream journalism is to reclaim its credibility, it must acknowledge these failures and commit absolutely to doing and being far better. The stakes are too high for anything less.