(TheIndependentStar.com) – In a disgraceful act showing how deep ant-truth Marxists have penetrated the US government and media, VOA, which is funded with American tax dollars, has purged the word “terrorists” from its coverage of Israel’s attackers Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group, replacing it with “militants.”
On October 7, Hamas and its sister group, Islamic Jihad, invaded US ally Israel and savagely slaughtered over 1,400 civilians – including 30 Americans.
The purging of the words “terrorist” and “terrorists” at Voice of America (VOA) began with a video report on the aftermath of the Hamas music festival massacre as, before its release, those terms were edited out, National Review reveals.
The Review obtained internal VOA communications showing that the word “terrorist” was replaced with “militant,” a term some international news services prefer for its perceived neutrality.
This adjustment required the Israeli reporter of the piece to re-record parts of her narration, altering the initial depiction of the assailants in the story.
The report, crafted by Linda Gradstein, a freelance reporter for VOA based in Israel, delved into a therapy program for survivors of the brutal attack on the Nova Music Festival near Re’im by Hamas, where more than 250 people were methodically killed.
The report featured distressing footage, including scenes of the massacre and its aftermath, while also focusing on the psychological impact on survivors.
In the original version of the story, sent to a VOA-wide email list, one of the survivors was described as having tried to “avoid the Hamas terrorists” at the festival site.
However, a revised script distributed two hours later amended this wording, replacing “Hamas ‘terrorist’” with “Hamas ‘militant’” as indicated in a subsequent email. Gradstein did not comment on these changes.
VOA defended this editorial decision, emphasizing adherence to their Best Practices guidance regarding the consistent terminology for terrorist groups.
“The specific story as edited conforms with VOA Best Practices guidance regarding consistency in how each story is to [refer to] terrorist groups,” VOA spokeswoman Emily Webb declared.
She admitted the edited story did not mention that the US and other governments have designated Hamas as a terrorist group, but VOA planned to correct that.
She also pointed out that because editing is an ongoing process, VOA does not track changes, such as removing the word “terrorist” before publication.
VOA is fully funded by the US government, which has declared Hamas a terrorist organization.
