Voice of America, the government’s taxpayer-funded news media operation, instructed its reporters last week to stop calling Hamas terrorists.
VOA told reporters to use “militant” or “fighter” instead, according to a source familiar with the directive. The source said VOA wanted to be seen as a neutral arbiter observer of Hamas’ murderous attack and Israel’s search for the right response.
Using the term terrorist is still acceptable for Hamas under VOA’s instructions as long as it’s in the words of someone else, the source said.
VOA declined to share the memo with The Washington Times but defended its policy.
“VOA’s approach is consistent with that taken by other major media organizations, including the Associated Press and the BBC, and is consistent with the guidance in VOA’s Best Practices guide,” said spokesperson Emily Webb.
According to that guide, the words “terror” and “terrorist” aren’t forbidden but are supposed to be used “with extreme care.”
“It is up to editors to determine if they are most appropriate terms to use,” VOA says in its guide.
VOA is run by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, though the network considers itself editorially independent. Taxpayers shelled out $267 million for VOA in fiscal year 2023, and the network has asked for a nearly $20 million raise for 2024.
That makes the decision to avoid using terrorist verbiage tricky.
The U.S. has designated Hamas as a terrorist group for decades and top administration officials have repeatedly used the term to describe the cabal that runs the government in Gaza.
Hamas’ sneak attack massacre of civilians, including families in their homes and more than 200 people at a music festival, and the taking of hostages would also seem to be dictionary-style definitions of terrorism.
Indeed, VOA has even fact-checked a Hamas leader’s claim that it didn’t target civilians on purpose. “That is false,” VOA declared, pointing to videos of Hamas attackers killing people fleeing the music festival and a Hamas “militant throwing a hand grenade at a father and his two sons attempting to take cover.”
Kenneth R. Weinstein, who served on the board overseeing VOA from 2013 to 2020 and was chairman from 2017 to 2020, blasted the network’s order not to call the perpetrators terrorists.
“I’m outraged that after a pogrom of this magnitude, such a directive went out,” he said. “There’s no place for moral equivalence in U.S. international broadcasting.”
The source who alerted The Times to VOA’s decision feared it suggested prevarication by the administration.
“The political leadership of a U.S. government-funded media organization telling its reporters not to call Hamas a terrorist group calls into question whether the Biden administration no longer believes that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and quietly decided to use the VOA to signal that the designation no longer applies,” the source said.
VOA’s stance has led to some intricate hair-splitting.
One piece published after the guidance went out Friday repeatedly called Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel a “terror attack.”
The British Broadcasting Corporation, funded by the U.K. government, had a policy of not labeling Hamas terrorists. After intense criticism following this month’s attack, the BBC said it would use the term “proscribed terrorist organization.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.