The Associated Press will not allow its reporters to identify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
It’s weird because the AP even admitted that the government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
There is so much wrong in the Israel-Hamas Topical Guide (AP’s emphasis):
terrorismThe calculated use of violence, especially against civilians, to create terror to disrupt and demoralize societies for political ends.The terms terrorism and terrorist have become politicized, and often are applied inconsistently. Because they can be used to label such a wide range of actions and events, and because the debate around them is so intense, detailing what happened is more precise and better serves audiences.
“Therefore, the AP is not using the terms for specific actions or groups, other than in direct quotations or when attributed to authorities or others,” the AP continued. “Instead, we describe specific atrocities, massacres, bombings, assassinations and other such actions.”
Okay. So, how should reporters describe Hamas? Not as terrorists (AP’s emphasis):
militant, militantsAP uses this term to describe Hamas, in keeping with the Webster’s New World College Dictionary definition: ready and willing to fight; especially, vigorous or aggressive in supporting or promoting a cause; and Merriam-Webster: aggressively active (as in a cause).Terms such as Hamas fighters, attackers or combatants are also acceptable depending on the context.Do not use the term Hamas soldiers or Hamas resistance, other than in direct quotations.The Israeli army has soldiers. It also can be called the Israeli military. Use its official name, Israel Defense Forces, and the acronym IDF only in direct quotations.
Under the Hamas section, the AP admitted: “The U.S. State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.”
But don’t you dare call them terrorists and a terrorist organization! Holy moly.
The reporters also cannot capitalize the word war. It has to be the “Israel-Hamas war.” Why?
“Lowercase the word war,” the AP explained. “AP capitalizes that word only as part of a formal name, which as of now does not exist.”
Are. You. Kidding. Me. Israel *literally* declared war on Hamas. It is *literally* a war.
The Washington Free Beacon reminded everyone that the AP once shared an office building with Hamas for 15 years.
The AP slammed the Israeli military for destroying the building, including the offices, in 2021: “We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.”
The military targeted terrorists, weapons, and an office for Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization.
But the AP knew the building had Hamas and terrorists. In 2014, Matt Friedman, a former AP reporter, detailed in The Atlantic:
When Hamas’s leaders surveyed their assets before this summer’s 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—and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas. (This happened.) Hamas fighters would burst into the AP’s Gaza bureau and threaten the staff—and the AP wouldn’t 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.)
I’m glad I don’t have to use the AP stylebook. MLA is far superior, but even that has been taken over by leftists.
The AP changed language after someone (we still don’t know who) Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
The AP changed definitions and language to cater to the left:
“Phrasing like pregnant people or people who seek an abortion seeks to include people who have those experiences, but do not identify as women, such as some transgender men and some nonbinary people,” read the new AP guidance.Saying pregnant “women” is now offensive. The rules of grammar and language must conform to any self-proclaimed marginalized group that says it’s offended. Truth and accuracy are secondary concerns.AP followed up last week with a more extensive “Topical Guide,” on transgenderism and other issues. It suggests using “unbiased language” and to “avoid false balance [by] giving a platform to unqualified claims or sources in the guise of balancing a story by including all views.”It then proceeded to elucidate its commitment to carrying water for the transgender advocacy movement and ensure that everyone using the AP Stylebook does, too.“A person’s sex and gender are usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants and can turn out to be inaccurate,” the guide says, with no evidence or explanation.“Experts say gender is a spectrum, not a binary structure consisting of only men and women, that can vary among societies and can change over time,” AP continues.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY