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Dishonest Reporter of the Year Awards 2023

It’s that time of year when we reflect on the last 12 months, revisiting the articles, interviews and television packages that were so blushingly bad that we feel they deserve some kind of special recognition….

Reading time: 17 minutes

It’s that time of year when we reflect on the last 12 months, revisiting the articles, interviews and television packages that were so blushingly bad that we feel they deserve some kind of special recognition.

However, the Dishonest Reporter Awards will be slightly different this year. Despite the current Israel-Hamas war dominating the media, and with it a depressing avalanche of skewed, misleading and outright false stories published, these Awards will not be featuring any news published since October 7.

As Jews around the world face antisemitism on an unprecedented scale in recent times, it would be wrong to make any kind of lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek commentary about the very stories and articles that have contributed to creating this hostile atmosphere.

We will address the war in its entirety at a later date when we have had time to take stock of the loss, anguish and suffering that so many have endured. 

Until then, we invite you to sit back, relax and raise a glass to all of our worthy dis-honorees.

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Best Creative Writing Masquerading as News – Reuters 

With thousands of journalists on its payroll and an annual turnover that exceeds hundreds of millions of dollars, Reuters is one of the biggest global news agencies.

Unfortunately, when reading the Israel content that Reuters publishes these days, it reads more like creative storytelling than fact-based journalism.

Why do we say this? Let’s take a look at some of the more creative ways they’ve described acts of terror against the Jewish people:

  1. Mere days after a Palestinian teen terrorist opened fire on a group of innocent people in Jerusalem, Reuters described his “ambition to be a chef.” Recasting him as a protagonist in a coming-of-age story, complete with dreams of culinary arts and a passion for football, ignored all agency in Mahmoud Aleiwat‘s decision to attempt murder.

  1. Likewise, when Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan died in prison in May on the 87th day of his hunger strike, Reuters eulogized him as a “prominent political leader” who was a “baker and father of nine.” They left out that his politics included attending West Bank rallies where he’d sometimes grab the megaphone and squark inspiring things like, “Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” Adnan was a terrorist whom Reuters treated like the hero of a tragic biopic.

But is Reuters’ new approach to news-telling all that surprising when it employs the likes of Henriette ‘Palestinian terrorism must be contextualized’ Chacar as an Israel correspondent?

Indeed, it says a lot about Reuters that it didn’t immediately hand Chacar a pink slip right after she sent an email to her boss questioning whether Israeli civilians are any different from combatants.

Giving Chacar the benefit of the doubt, though, she may have mistakenly thought that Israel is similar to Palestinian society where many kids’ first lesson on how to assemble a suicide belt comes around age 5. We, too, have found it hard to distinguish between a Palestinian terrorist throwing a Molotov cocktail and a Palestinian civilian throwing a Molotov cocktail.

We’re told by the media that there is a difference between the two.

Trash-talking on Television Award — Christiane Amanpour 

The biggest retraction and apology in 2023 came from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who suggested Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife and daughters, who were murdered by terrorists in April, had been killed in a “shootout.”

She called it a simple case of “misspeaking” — but the problem with that is that Amanpour is a repeat offender.

Was it also a slip of the tongue when she suggested Israel isn’t a democracy? And was she tongue-tied when she failed to ask why one of Al Jazeera’s star witnesses of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh was an Islamic Jihad terrorist?

Christiane Amanpour has a knack for linguistic blunders, but oddly enough, they only seem to crop up when she’s talking about Israel. What a coincidence!

Most Unrepentant Antisemite — Roger Waters 

Is dressing as a Nazi antisemitic? How about dressing as a Nazi and goose-stepping around on stage? What if it’s dressing as a Nazi, goose-stepping like a Wehrmacht soldier, and having a giant inflatable pig balloon decorated with a Star of David flying overhead? Would that be considered antisemitic?

Apparently not, if you’re Roger Waters. See, the former Pink Floyd musician thinks it’s completely normal and not indicative of any animosity whatsoever toward Jews to impersonate as part of his stage act the monsters who murdered six million Jews.

Rather, Roger thinks such antics clearly show his “opposition to fascism.” We guess it was that same commitment to opposing fascism on display when Roger emailed a staffer about “dirty kykes” back in 2010.

Now, we are aware that Roger isn’t a journalist, so he really shouldn’t be collecting prizes meant for them. Therefore, we thought we would also recognize the valiant efforts of the many journalists who quickly decided that the parts of his show resembling a Nuremberg rally were actually “satirical” stunts by a guy, who, despite all evidence to the contrary, is “definitely not a closet fascist,” as was The Telegraph’s chief music critic Neil McCormick’s verdict.

Meanwhile, more cognizant sub-editors over at The Times of London were caught making sneaky changes to a piece filed by the newspaper’s music man Mark Beaumont that initially suggested we should all “ignore” criticism of the septuagenarian rocker’s antisemitism.

You know, because the equation is like, making cool music > being a Nazi.

Poison Pen(cil) Prize – Guardian Cartoonists Steve Bell and Martin Rowson

Can someone be unintentionally antisemitic? Yes, probably, in the same way that they can be unintentionally racist.

Over the years, we have witnessed how even the most unimpeachably progressive individuals can be guilty of a racial faux pas. So when The Guardian’s cartoonist Martin Rowson attempted to mock the outgoing BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who just so happens to be Jewish, by producing a sketch of Sharp that drew on every antisemitic trope in the book, we were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Martin Rowson cartoon of BBC chairman Richard Sharp in the Guardian
Martin Rowson’s antisemitic cartoon of BBC chairman Richard Sharp printed in The Guardian

Was there a hook nose? Check. Giant vampire squid? Box of gold? Reference to Goldman Sachs? Check, check, and check. But okay, we thought, The Guardian immediately retracted the cartoon and Rowson issued a seemingly heartfelt mea culpa in which he apologized “unconditionally” and acknowledged the enormous hurt and upset he had “unintentionally” elicited.

But now we’re reminded that this isn’t the first time Rowson has been honored in the Dishonest Reporter Awards, having first scooped a prize in 2006 for another cartoon that was retracted by The Guardian which depicted a bloodied fist emblazoned with Stars of David punching a Palestinian child.

Shame it’s taken this long for Rowson to have his epiphany, but perhaps he deserves credit for what appears to be a genuine attempt to face up to his previous misdeeds.

Yet, “Whoopsie, we published another antisemitic sketch” must be a common refrain heard at The Guardian, given the fact that up until this year, it also had Steve Bell on its payroll.

Bell was finally given the boot in October, following 40 illustrious years of “satirically” smearing Jews, after apparently filing just one antisemitic cartoon too many.

It took a Guardian editor to call Bell on the phone and explain why a cartoon of Benjamin Netanyahu slicing a “pound of flesh” from Gaza was antisemitic and would not be published.

Bell’s response was to complain about how “impossible” it is to draw Jews these days without getting accused of antisemitism. Lesson learned, then.

Hazy Geography Award – All Media Outlets

It’s a fact that when Israel is concerned, most self-professed experts get basic information wrong.

Like the capital of Israel, for example. No matter how many times they’re told, some folks just can’t remember that Jerusalem is the capital.

But it is now increasingly clear that the constant confusion over the capital is part of a wider phenomenon of journalists playing dumb about Israeli geography.

For the most part, the topographical trip-ups are mostly the repetitive flubbing of the capital city.

But sometimes they are outright amusing, like when the BBC played a game of “see how I synonym” in a piece about the ordination of the first woman pastor in Israel as it went out of its way to avoid mentioning Israel at all.

The BBC did everything — gushed about “the Holy Land,” discussed how she had been anointed in the place “where events in the Bible are set” and quoted people lauding the event “in Palestine” — all to avoid spelling out that six letter word that starts with I and ends with L.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post was even caught using Roman terminology for the land in a bid to avoid labeling it Israel in a bizarre infographic that alleged Jerusalem is in “Palestina.”

Tangled Timeline Award – Operation Shield and Arrow Reporting

When Khader Adnan passed away in prison in May, his old friends and colleagues in Islamic Jihad decided to pay tribute to him in the most fitting way — by firing a barrage of rockets into Israel.

Over the next four days, Islamic Jihad launched hundreds of rockets while Israel responded with targeted strikes until a ceasefire was agreed upon.

But if you were reading the media reports about Israel’s Operation Shield and Arrow, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was Israel that suddenly thought it would be a fun idea to start a little conflict with its friendly neighboring jihadis.

Numerous mainstream media outlets insisted the conflagration began with Israeli strikes on Gaza — even as Islamic Jihad’s Secretary-General, Ziad al-Nakhale, put out press releases saying stuff like, “The long martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan is the title of the march of our brave and stubborn people. We will not leave the path of jihad and resistance until the liberation of our land from the Zionist murderers and criminals.”

The media even doubled down when Islamic Jihad — perhaps not wishing to see anyone else claim credit for its work — released further statements in which it declared its “responsibility for targeting gatherings of vehicles and soldiers of the Zionist enemy with heavy-caliber shells, and confirms causing accurate and direct hits.”

How many times do Palestinian terrorists have to quite literally spell out who they are before the media takes their word for it?

Most Flawless Fibber – Muhammed Shehada

This is a new award that we will admit was only invented so it could be bestowed on the one and only Muhammed Shehada.

We named the award thus because freelance Gazan journo Shehada has perfected a skill that many in his field could only dream of — an extraordinary ability to spout complete and utter fiction while keeping a straight face.

Okay, so we’re not being completely fair here. Most of the lies Shehada tells are posted using his phone on the social media site X (formerly Twitter) so we can’t actually tell if his face is as impassive as we imagine it to be. But given how much practice he has in the art of lying, we can’t picture Shehada breaking a sweat when, for example, he brazenly claimed that the Palestinian Authority has never given terrorists financial rewards.

This is even though the Palestinian Authority itself has repeatedly acknowledged and defended the “pay-for-slay” policy.

Among the other things Shehada has lied through his teeth about include disputing the fact Palestinians are actually shooting “rockets” at Israel, and whether explosive balloons fired from Gaza are indeed explosive, or merely “distress signals.”

Although we will concede that fiery balls falling from the sky is fairly distressing.

Sponsored by Iran Award – The Irish Times 

The impressive thing about the Iranian regime is how despite crippling financial sanctions, it always manages to dig some cash from the depths of its piggy bank when it knows the money will be spent on killing Jews. This is the main reason why Hamas always seems to have enough funds to build rockets but never enough to feed the Palestinians it governs.

And now we’re starting to suspect Iran has found another cause to support with its dwindling funds — the Irish Times.

To be crystal clear, we’re joking and if any Irish libel lawyers are reading this, we don’t think the Iranian state is paying the Irish Times. But, we do think that if the regime did want to sponsor a newspaper, might we suggest the Irish Times, which seems to weave into its articles some weirdly sympathetic lines toward the Iranian regime.

For example, there was that time when the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent Michael Jansen sounded as though she was practically salivating at the prospect of Iran’s hypersonic missile slamming into Tel Aviv.

And then there was the piece in which the writer appeared almost relieved at the unfreezing of $6 billion, which, according to the publication, would “boost the regime as it struggles to contain soaring living costs…” Excuse us while we dig out our teeny, tiny violin.

And the winner is…

Dishonest Reporter of the Year – BBC

As with last year, there was stiff competition for the Dishonest Reporter Award 2023.

Our shortlist was jam-packed with promising contenders whose contributions to the field of “lies about Israel” were each more impressive than the last. From CNN royalty Christiane Amanpour (mentioned above), who thinks the murder of an Israeli mother by Hamas terrorists is like a “shootout” between rival LA gangs, to resident MSNBC dunce Ali Velshi, who can scarcely make it through a piece-to-camera these days without bandying about words and terminology he clearly doesn’t understand, such as “apartheid.” We say Ali doesn’t understand what apartheid is because why else would he use the word about Israel where all citizens — regardless of race, religion or sex — have equal rights?

But there can only be one winner. So, without further ado, the Dishonest Reporter of the Year Award goes to… the BBC!

Yes, how far the once-esteemed British Broadcasting Corporation has fallen. Once a beacon of impartiality, fearlessly slicing through the thick fog of partisan politics to deliver the unvarnished truth, the Beeb now is more likely to be found promoting blood libels, as with Anjana Gadgil’s infamous interview with former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, and disputing the appropriateness of calling a terrorist “a terrorist.”

All in all, the BBC has had one of its toughest years to date, having brushed off all manner of criticism and scandal, including being slammed for wasting taxpayer funds on boring TV shows and several of its big-name stars breaking the corporation’s staff social media policy.

And while we hate to kick a man while he’s down, we have to agree that 2023 was the BBC’s annus horribilis.

Having wrapped up 2022 with a scathing rebuke from the UK’s media regulator Ofcom for “significant editorial failings” — specifically, their victim-blaming report on an antisemitic attack on Jewish students in London — the BBC wasted no time reverting to its old ways a few months later.

This time, the Beeb was outdoing itself, frantically fishing for a fresh ‘blame Israel’ narrative after Islamic Jihad terrorists decided to light up the sky with rockets from Gaza in May.

And let’s hand it to them, it was a good one: cancer patients in Gaza are dying because they can’t receive world-class treatment in Israel after selfish Israel closed the Gaza border to prevent terrorists from killing its citizens. Genius stuff.

Then there was the BBC’s fumbling coverage of the IDF’s raid on the terror hotspot of Jenin. In this instance, the broadcaster seemed bent on persuading everyone that Palestinian terrorists are solely targeting “the occupation,” blatantly ignoring all evidence indicating their primary grievance is with Jews anywhere being alive rather than dead.

But the biggest issue the BBC has had this year has been its Herculean battle against the word “terrorist” ever making an appearance in a story about a terrorist attack in Israel.

For the BBC, terrorism is an evil that occurs everywhere in the world except Israel. In Israel, it’s an attack or an incident — but never terrorism.

Because for the BBC, Palestinians are victims and Israelis are aggressors and nothing — no stabbing, bombing or car-ramming — can upset this dichotomy. And that’s that.

Honorable Mentions…

Lastly, we have some individuals and outlets who, despite their best efforts, didn’t quite make the cut.

From The New York Times fawning over terrorists and their supporters to The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan’s total inability to learn the dictionary definition of the word “siege,” we had so many nominees who just missed out.

We do want to say a heartfelt goodbye to Mehdi Hasan, who was just edged out of our TV award by Christiane Amanpour, and who we imagine we’ll be seeing a lot less of after his MSNBC show was canceled in November.

We really can’t imagine why Mehdi’s tedious monologues weren’t the ratings winner MSNBC had hoped for.

But if anyone’s fretting about where they’ll get their weekly dose of patronizing smuggery now that Mehdi’s gone, they’ll be happy to know that Ayman Mohyeldin’s show has been expanded to two hours to fill the empty slot.

Lastly, to those of you journalists and media outlets who didn’t get a prize, sorry. But rest assured, many of you were deserving.

With that, thank you, goodbye and we’ll see you next year!

Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.

Photo credits: Roger Waters — Andrés Ibarra via Wikimedia Commons; Christiane Amanpour — UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré via Flickr; Ali Velshi — Remy Steinegger via Flickr; Muhammed Shehada — Screenshot from Twitter

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Rachel O'Donoghue
Rachel O'Donoghue
Born in London, England, Rachel O'Donoghue moved to Israel in April 2021 after spending five years working at various national newspaper titles in the UK. She studied law at the University of Law, London, and gained a master's degree in multimedia journalism at the University of Kent.
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