“Neutrality,” the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel famously said, “helps the oppressor.” Yet in the West’s war against Islamic terrorism, a key U.S. agency is feigning neutrality instead of forthrightly standing for American values. The culprit is the U.S.-owned and operated news network Voice of America (VOA).
VOA’s reporting on the war between Israel and Iranian-backed proxies such as Hamas has fallen woefully short. Journalism demands both specificity and accuracy. But the taxpayer-funded VOA has refused to call Hamas “terrorists.”
In an Oct. 23 report, journalist Jimmy Quinn revealed that VOA’s management told staff not to call Hamas and its members “terrorists.” Three days before Quinn’s dispatch, VOA associate editor for news standards Carol Guensburg told employees that VOA must maintain neutrality and its reporters should “be especially careful with word choice in dealing with a conflict.”
VOA added that while it was permissible to call the Oct. 7 massacre of hundreds of civilians a “terrorist attack,” the news outlet must “avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists, except in quotes.” Instead, “useful alternatives” like “militant group or militants or fighters” should be used. VOA’s decision echoes that of some other news outlets, including the Associated Press.
Clearly Terrorists
Yet Hamas is, in fact, a U.S.-designated terrorist group — and it has held that designation since 1997. The European Union, Israel, and others have similarly designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. And they’ve done so for good reason: Hamas is a terrorist group that commits acts of terror.
The group, which has its origins in the
