“Stringers” is the colloquial term for freelance photojournalists. They are often employed by multiple media news outlets but are still bound to the journalistic ethics and rules when obtaining and selling their photos. These types of photographers are essential, particularly in locations that are not domestic, to aid in coverage of breaking news.

However, stringers employed by American-based mainstream media (MSM) companies such as Reuters, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and CNN appeared to have crossed that ethical line. They were present, documenting the attack from start to finish, and potentially participating in the October 7 massacre in Israel. They crossed the border illegally into Israel, and many were not wearing any gear that identified them as members of the press.

The journalistic watchdog group that uncovered this duplicity is called Honest Reporting. It discovered that these photojournalists were not only linked to these news outlets but seemed to be in collusion or at least embedded with the Hamas terrorists during the attack. Honest Reporting reasoned:

What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

When the article broke, the biggest question on many people’s minds was: Did these American news outlets have advanced knowledge of the attack? All the MSM outlets have unequivocally denied having advanced knowledge.

While this may well be true, these outlets did pay for these freelancers’ photos and gave them photo credits on their sites. They have since faced calls, particularly from Israel, to distance themselves from the photographers in question. CNN has severed ties with one of the photographers, Hassan Eslaiah. This photojournalist had done work for the AP as well. On October 7, Eslaiah had a lot of questionable photos uploaded, such as of Hamas breeching the Israeli border, and most infamously this one of him posing with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the orchestrators of the massacre.

More: Here is Hassan Eslaiah, an @AP and @CNN contributor, taking a selfie while being kissed by Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza and architect of the 10/7 slaughter. https://t.co/V1J5cfUpCS pic.twitter.com/SrFQ4cUdzw

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) November 8, 2023

The MSM have always had a certain slant when covering the Israel/Hamas war. They tend to report Hamas as the victims when it was Hamas that attacked Israel, hides behind civilians to protect themselves, steals from their people to live lives of luxury in Qatar, and openly calls for the eradication of the Jews. The New York Times’s biased reporting on behalf of the terrorists has already gotten it in trouble.

Now to the wisdom of using “freelance journalists” based in Gaza. This is a fraught proposition from the start. These Palestinian journalists are likely either a part of Hamas or are controlled by the terror group. They have no real journalistic freedom, and using them as “reliable” sources is foolish.

The MSM are full of fools, of course. Hamas happily uses these journalists as intermediaries to play games with Western media, which turn around and paint this inaccurate picture of the oppressed/oppressor dynamic to justify atrocities. The MSM are dedicated to the moral equivocation narrative, and because they have become narrative-driven rather than fact-driven, they are the West’s biggest traitors.

Why this MSM insistence on moral equivalence, particularly in light of all the clear evidence of Hamas being the agents of genocidal evil against Israeli Jews? There is not a short or easy answer to that. Part of the answer has to do with the departure from Judeo-Christian-based morality and the move toward leftist notions of moral relativism and Marxist teachings of racial oppression. Other parts of the answer have to do with what journalism has become: narrative-driven. Reporters’ blindness to their own hypocrisy and betrayal of journalistic values have led them to this pass.

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro asks the biggest question of all: “Would journalistic outlets like the AP and Reuters use stringers associated with white supremacist groups in order to take pictures at Charlottesville? Or are they only willing to use stringers who associate openly with terrorists and voice their support for Hitler, so long as they’re Islamic radicals? What moral responsibility do the AP and Reuters and their like bear for printing the propaganda of Hamas and its minions?”

These MSM outfits have little to no public trust as it is. Most Americans, according to a New York Times/Siena poll, believe that the MSM are a “major threat” to democracy. This sentiment is probably more reinforced after the pitiful coverage of the Israel/Hamas war. The MSM are actively spreading propaganda in aid of the terrorists attacking the only democratic nation in the Middle East.

They are despicable, and this is just the latest nail in their morally corrupt coffin.