NOT SATIRE: New York Times Hires Pro-Hitler, Pro-Hamas Videographer To Cover Israel-Gaza War
Do you think that this might slant the coverage?
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After relying on Hamas propaganda in the Gaza Hospital story that caused significant ripple effects including several leaders in the Middle East canceling meetings with the U.S. President while Air Force One was mid-flight to Israel, one might think that the New York Times would be a bit more fastidious in rooting out bias.
If you thought that, you’d be wrong. It apparently isn’t much of a concern for the so-called “paper of record.”
The NYTimes has decided to hire videographer Soliman Hijjy (also spelled “Sulaiman Hejji”) who has posted praise for Hitler on social media. In a 2021 Facebook post, Hijjy wrote, “How great you are Hitler” in Arabic with a photoshopped image of the Nazi leader taking a selfie. Another Facebook post in 2018 was a photo of Hijjy which he captioned, “I’m in tune like Hitler during the Holocaust.”
This is actually a re-hire. The NYTimes fired Hijjy in 2022 after his pro-Hitler social media posts were brought to light by HonestReporting. Now that they need someone to report what’s happening in Gaza, so they’re apparently going with the guy that expresses admiration for Nazis.
The New York Times’s Israel reporter loves Adolf Hitler
The New York Times knows this…and simply does not care
???? pic.twitter.com/rJYQSKBBR7
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) October 24, 2023
OUTRAGE: @nytimes has rehired Gazan freelance filmmaker Soliman Hijjy (also spelled Sulaiman Hejji) who praised Adolf Hitler on social media and later posted he was “in a state of harmony as Hitler was during the Holocaust.” pic.twitter.com/V0UmjQrmyX
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 20, 2023
Hijjy’s name is listed as producer and cinematographer along with three other contributors to the byline for the New York Times post “Devastation in Gaza After Hospital Blast”, a video essay about the aftermath of the Islamic Jihad rocket that was launched from behind the hospital in Gaza and fell into the parking lot. The video tries to cloud the situation by stating that “Palestinians blame Israel for the blast” and that “Israel says the explosion was caused by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian militants.” Multiple countries have stated that all evidence points to a failed rocket by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The essay also relies on reporting by Hamas — citing the Hamas operatives as “Health Officials” and a “Spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza.”
But it isn’t just his biased reporting or the fangirling of the Third Reich — he has also described Israel as an “occupier” by referring to the Israeli city of Ashkelon as “occupied al-Majdal.”
He also justifies rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists as “resistance.”
In addition to his admiration for Nazism, Soliman Hijjy seems to be a mouthpiece for the US-designated Hamas terror organization that controls the Gaza Strip. On more than one occasion, he has justified war crimes against Israeli civilians by describing indiscriminate rocket attacks as “resistance.”
Source: HonestReporting
Bringing someone like Hijjy on to report on the war in the Middle East isn’t a one-off — it looks like a pattern of behavior from the NYTimes.
The website HonestReporting has been doing some great work digging through the social media posts of journalists hired by news outlets.
HonestReporting has highlighted a few antisemites hired by the New York Times to cover the perpetual conflict in the Middle East.
In the 2022 report outing Hijjy, HonestReporting noted that there were other hires that were a problem.
On August 11, HonestReporting put a spotlight on the violent and antisemitic social media history of Fady Hanona, a freelance producer and fixer who was credited by The New York Times in multiple stories published this month.
“I don’t accept a Jew, Israeli or Zionist, or anyone else who speaks Hebrew. I’m with killing them wherever they are: children, elderly people, and soldiers,” Hanona had said, adding: “The Jews are sons of the dogs… I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler did. I will be so happy.”
Another is freelance photographer Hosam Salem who has been pretty clear about his bias for years. His Facebook posts include a call to kill non-Muslims, praising acts of terror, calling terrorists “martyrs” and calling for more violence as a form of “resistance.”
Many of these posts were after he became a freelance photographer for the New York Times.
The watchdog group concluded in 2022:
Hanona, Hijjy, and Salem are not unfortunate exceptions. In fact, they are only the most recent, egregious examples that we have uncovered in our role as a media watchdog. In the last year alone, HonestReporting’s investigative work has resulted in multiple journalists being fired or no longer featured by The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and the BBC, who fired Tala Halawa after we revealed that she tweeted “Hitler was right.”
Source: HonstReporting
It looks like they’re right now that Hijjy is back at the Times.
By the way, the NYTimes defended its rehiring of Hijjy after the New York Post contacted them about the decision.
“We reviewed problematic social media posts by Mr. Hijjy when they first came to light in 2022 and took a variety of actions to ensure he understood our concerns and could adhere to our standards if he wished to do freelance work for us in the future,” the rep said…
…“Mr. Hijjy followed those steps and has maintained high journalistic standards. He has delivered important and impartial work at great personal risk in Gaza during this conflict.”
Source: New York Post
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