HonestReporting

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HonestReporting
FormationOctober 2000; 25 years ago (2000-10)
FounderShaul Rosenblatt
Chief Executive Officer
Jacki Alexander
Executive director
Gil Hoffman
Websitehonestreporting.com

HonestReporting or Honest Reporting is an Israeli media advocacy group.[1] A pro-Israel media watchdog,[2][3] it describes its mission as "combat[ting] ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel".[1]

History

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HonestReporting says its mission is "to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel".[1] It was founded in October 2000 by Shaul Rosenblatt, founder and head of Aish Hatorah-United Kingdom in response to controversy over the Tuvia Grossman photograph at the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The episode is often cited by those who accuse the media of having an anti-Israel bias, and was the impetus for the founding of HonestReporting.[4][5][6]

Within six weeks, HonestReporting had an email list of 10,000 volunteers to monitor the media and respond accordingly. Irwin Katsof offered to lead fundraising efforts to hire professional staff.[6]

As of 2022, the chief executive officer of HonestReporting was Jacki Alexander.[7] Gil Hoffman was appointed as the executive director of HonestReporting in 2022.[8]

In March 2006, a dedicated website by HonestReporting for covering the media in the UK was launched by two expatriate Britons, CEO Joe Hyams, and managing editor Simon Plosker;[9] in 2011, the HR UK website was merged into the main site.[10]

HonestReporting Canada

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HonestReporting Canada (HRC) was founded in 2003 to monitor Middle East news coverage in Canada. Journalist Jonathan Kay credited HRC with reducing perceived anti-Israel bias in the English-language media in Canada by 2011.[11][12] In 2012, a campaign by HRC led to a Canadian Broadcast Standards Council investigation after local politician Stéphane Gendron made controversial comments on the French-language V Television Network.[13]

In November 2024, Honest Reporting Canada's assistant director, Robert Walker, was criminally charged with 17 counts of mischief for allegedly vandalizing several properties in a Toronto neighborhood by spray painting anti-Palestinian graffiti.[14][15] The charges were withdrawn on March 5, 2025, in recognition of a $1,000 charitable donation by Walker to the Sick Kids Foundation.[16]

Activities

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HonestReporting reviews news articles and op-eds regarding Israel to check for and respond to any bias or fake news.[17][18] HonestReporting is not a news organization, and therefore does not seek to follow journalistic ethics and standards.[1]

HonestReporting's actions have resulted in a number of corrections in the media. In 2022, Idris Muktar Ibrahim, a producer at CNN, was found to have made social media posts praising Hamas and saying "#TeamHitler."[19] After HonestReporting contacted CNN about the producer's ability to report impartially, CNN ended their working relationship with him.[20] He later apologized.[21]

In 2012, HonestReporting filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the UK after The Guardian ran a correction apologizing for having called Jerusalem Israel's capital, contrary to the paper's style guide. HonestReporting acted to initiate a judicial review after the PCC initially ruled that The Guardian had not breached the PCC code, saying that the ruling had "potential to further delegitimize Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital." The PCC retracted its original ruling and asked the paper to defend its position. The Guardian then modified its style guide so that it no longer categorically states that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel rather than Jerusalem.[22]

In 2022, journalist Shatha Hammad was discovered to have posted on Facebook that she considered Adolf Hitler her "friend"[23] and that they "share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews."[24] Hammad made other posts using the nickname "Hitler" and denying Israel's right to exist.[25] She also termed terrorists who murdered Israeli worshipers in the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack as "martyrs." After HonestReporting's exposure of her posts, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund withdrew the awards they had granted her.[26]

In 2023, news producer Fady Hanona was discovered by HonestReporting to have posted antisemitic social media posts,[27][28] leading news outlets he previously worked for such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and others to cut ties with him.[29]

In November 2023, HonestReporting published an article questioning whether Palestinian photojournalists had tipped off the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and CNN prior to the October 7 attacks. The report led two Israeli politicians to threaten that these journalists be killed,[30] while the Israeli Prime Minister's office said the journalists were "accomplices in crimes against humanity".[31] The media organizations strongly refuted allegations that they had any prior knowledge of the Hamas attack. Yousef Masoud, whose photos were published in the NYT and AP, started photographing 90 minutes after the attack started. Reuters said that its pictures, taken by two freelance photojournalists, were taken two hours after the attack began. The AP and CNN announced that they would stop working with one of the freelance photographers after HonestReporting showed a picture of him being kissed by Hamas leader Yehia Sinwar.[32][33][31] On November 10, 2023, HonestReporting's director said he accepted that the media groups had no advance knowledge of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Balmer, Crispian. "HonestReporting accepts news groups had no prior warning of Oct. 7 Hamas attack". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  2. ^ Sokol, Sam (November 9, 2023). "News Agencies Dispute Israeli Allegations of Complicity in Hamas Massacre". Haaretz. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
  3. ^ "Gil Hoffman". The Jerusalem Post. 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  4. ^ "Carnage for the Cameras". The Wall Street Journal. October 6, 2000. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  5. ^ Koltermann, Felix (2017). Fotoreporter im Konflikt: Der internationale Fotojournalismus in Israel/Palästina. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. pp. 25 n.3.
  6. ^ a b Rosenblum, Yonoson (March 2, 2020). Rav Noach Weinberg: Torah Revolutionary. Mosaica Press. pp. 495–497. ISBN 978-1-946351-87-6. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  7. ^ Pierre, Dion J. (October 19, 2022). "Journalism Award Stripped from Palestinian Journalist Over Antisemitic Facebook Posts". The Algemeiner. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  8. ^ "HonestReporting announces appointment of Gil Hoffman as new executive director". Religion News Service. May 25, 2022. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  9. ^ "HonestReporting Launches UK Site". TJ News Archive. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  10. ^ "HR: Elevating Action Against the UK Media". HonestReporting. August 3, 2011. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  11. ^ Glinter, Ezra (October 11, 2007). "Films at Concordia cause controversy". Canadian Jewish News. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007.
  12. ^ Kay, Jonathan (November 4, 2011). "Jonathan Kay on Stéphane Gendron, Quebec's Israel-hater en chef". National Post. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  13. ^ "Quebec mayor under fire for anti-Israel remarks". CBC. January 6, 2012. Archived from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  14. ^ "Assistant director of Honest Reporting facing charges in connection with Riverdale graffiti". Toronto Star. January 24, 2025. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  15. ^ Lapin, Andrew (January 28, 2025). "Senior employee of Canadian pro-Israel media watchdog charged for anti-Palestinian graffiti". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  16. ^ Powell, Betsy (March 5, 2025). "Crown withdraws charges against Honest Reporting staffer over anti-Palestinian graffiti". Toronto Star. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  17. ^ "'Al Jazeera witness is PIJ terrorist' claims pro-Israel watchdog". i24NEWS. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. HonestReporting executive director Gil Hoffman stated: "The credibility of the investigations of Al Jazeera in probing Abu Akleh's death are questionable now that HonestReporting exposed their chief witness as an active member of a murderous terrorist organization.
  18. ^ "Time Retracts Claim That Israeli Troops Harvested Palestinian Organs". Haaretz. August 25, 2014. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  19. ^ "CNN Cans Producer Idris Mukhtar Ibrahim After He Posts About Praising Hamas Terrorism & Writing '#TeamHitler' On Twitter". MSN. November 19, 2022. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  20. ^ Halon, Yael; Grossman, Hannah (November 18, 2022). "CNN drops producer Idris Mukhtar Ibrahim over Hamas praise, '#TeamHitler' post". New York Post. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  21. ^ Shiundu, Linda (December 24, 2022). "Idris Muktar: Kenyan Journalist Says Tweets He Posted 10 Years Ago Cost Him CNN Job". Tuko. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  22. ^ Ahern, Raphael (August 8, 2012). "Guardian: We were wrong to call Tel Aviv Israel's capital". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  23. ^ Halon, Yael (October 19, 2022). "Reuters rescinds award from Palestinian journalist following surfaced social media posts praising Hitler". Fox News. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  24. ^ "Palestinian journalist stripped of award over antisemitic comments". Arab News. October 21, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  25. ^ i24NEWS (October 19, 2022). "Palestinian journalist stripped of award for pro-Hitler remarks". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ Ben-David, Daniel (October 19, 2022). "Reuters strips award from Palestinian journalist after she said 'I'm friends with Hitler'". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. On Sunday, media watchdog HonestReporting uncovered posts made by Shatha Hammad, a freelance journalist who has written for Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, in which she signed off her Facebook comments using the nickname "Hitler".
  27. ^ "NY Times cuts ties with Gaza freelancer who called to kill Jews 'like Hitler did'". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  28. ^ Kesslen, Ben (August 15, 2022). "NY Times cuts ties with freelancer who called for killing Jews 'like Hitler did'". New York Post. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  29. ^ Clarke, Tyrone (August 22, 2022). "The Guardian and the ABC join global media outlets in cutting ties with anti-Semitic freelance journalist Fady Hanona". Sky News. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  30. ^ "Media watchdog says it was just 'raising questions' with insinuations about photographers and Hamas". AP News. November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  31. ^ a b "Reuters denies any suggestion it had prior knowledge of Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel". Reuters. November 9, 2023. Archived from the original on December 13, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  32. ^ Oliver Darcy (November 10, 2023). "News outlets deny prior knowledge of Hamas attack after Israeli government demands answers over misleading report". CNN. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  33. ^ Barr, Jeremy (November 9, 2023). "News organizations deny advance knowledge of Hamas attack". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
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