The LA Times might be a liberal publication. It might have called for a ceasefire, which will only benefit Hamas. It's not going to sign onto some pro-terrorist open letter, however. It's nothing that deserves a medal ceremony, but good on the LA Times for preventing its staff from signing onto this ridiculous letter that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
You'd think Hamas wrote it if you didn't know any better. It also urged that reporters use phrases like "genocide" and "apartheid" in their coverage. Semafor initially reported the internal crackdown at the paper:
New: Reporters at the LA Times who signed an open letter criticizing Israel have been told that they cannot write about the Israel/Gaza conflict for three months https://t.co/fbc7lhvOsg
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) November 16, 2023
The Los Angeles Times is prohibiting staff from covering the Gaza war for at least three months if they signed a strongly-worded open letter criticizing Israel’s military operations in the region.
Earlier this month, nearly a dozen staffers at the LA Times signed the open letter condemning the Israeli government’s bombing of Gaza, and saying the military operations were harming journalists and threatening newsgathering. The letter also called on newsrooms to use language including “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide” when referring to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that staffers who signed the letter have been told by the paper’s management that they will not be allowed to cover the conflict in any way for at least three months.
[…]
LA Times top editor Kevin Merida reminded staff of the company’s ethics and fairness policy, which stated that a “fair-minded reader of the Times news coverage should not be able to discern the private opinions of those who contributed to that coverage, or to infer that the organization is promoting any agenda.”
“Feeling heard and seen are essential to a healthy newsroom, as are civility and collective responsibility. Rigor, fairness, dissent, difference, can all co-exist as qualities that lead to the best journalism,” Merida wrote in a company-wide email. “But we must maintain the integrity of that journalism, which is core to our reputation. Journalism itself is an agent for change. Having a compass to guide that work ensures that we don’t imperil it, or inadvertently cause harm to our colleagues’ ability to do their jobs,” he wrote.
All good things, but those principles were doused in gasoline and set ablaze during the Trump years when every outlet ran with a total fake news hoax aimed at crippling the Trump presidency. You also have scores of reporters taking the word of terrorists as gospel, as The New York Times had done with the Gaza hospital bombing. The paper initially blamed Israel for striking the building until it was determined quickly that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible due to an errant rocket salvo that landed in the parking lot. Still, the initial report set the Muslim world ablaze. Biden was reportedly furious that an American paper peddled this fake narrative.
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As I said, no medal ceremony here:
The same LA Times that had several reporters who spent weeks trying to cover for Hamas’ brutality.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 16, 2023
This editorial note is still on an opinion column despite extensive evidence of widespread rapes. https://t.co/e8pvNjSqZQ pic.twitter.com/CExo08NgeA
The only source for “Hamas beheaded babies” appears to be the Israeli military, which is widely known to spread lies and disinformation
— Adam Elmahrek (@adamelmahrek) October 10, 2023
Journalists, this is the fog of war. You’ll be seeing all sorts of claims. Don’t amplify unverified, sensational info https://t.co/7tiCNAj3j9
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