You can read my latest report here, but the gist of it is that Voice of America reversed a policy that prohibited its journalists from referring directly to Hamas as “terrorists” in their stories.

I have one thing to flag that didn’t make it into the piece. VOA acting director John Lippman accused media outlets (presumably National Review, which led coverage of this situation) of misunderstanding the policy.

In an October 27 memo to VOA staff, Lippman wrote: “VOA’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war this week has attracted interest from several media organizations that jumped to the wrong conclusion after reading standards guidance about our coverage.”

He further explained that, although VOA allows reference to Hamas’s terrorist attacks, “we let analysts and world leaders be the ones to label Hamas as ‘terrorists’ while consistently reminding our audiences of the U.S. declaration that Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

The upshot was that Lippman reiterated the fact that Hamas carried out “terrorist attacks” on October 7, but he stopped short of calling the perpetrators of those attacks “terrorists.”

Now, a little more than a month later, VOA has reversed course.

Lippman wrote today in his note revoking the earlier guidance: “Correcting guidance that was issued October 10, 2023, and reissued on October 20, 2023, there is NO prohibition in our Best Practices Guide against our labeling the people and organizations that commit acts of terror as ‘terrorists’ or against using the word ‘terrorism’ in our stories without attribution.”

The old guidance had been in place for nearly two months until today’s decision.

QOSHE - VOA, Then and Now - Jimmy Quinn
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VOA, Then and Now

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06.12.2023

You can read my latest report here, but the gist of it is that Voice of America reversed a policy that prohibited its journalists from referring directly to Hamas as “terrorists” in their stories.

I have one thing to flag that didn’t make it into the piece. VOA acting director John Lippman accused media outlets (presumably National Review, which led coverage of this situation) of misunderstanding the........

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