We [AP News] had a great reporter in Gaza, a Palestinian who had always been really an excellent reporter. We had a detail in a story – the detail was a crucial one. It was that Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians and were being counted as civilians in the death toll. … The reporter called me a few hours later. It was clear that someone had spoken to him. … He said, Matti, you have to take that detail out of the story and it was clear that someone had threatened him. I took the detail out of the story. I suggested to our editors that we note in an editor's note that we were now complying with Hamas censorship. I was overruled. And from that point in time, the AP, like all of its sister organizations, collaborates with Hamas censorship in Gaza. What does that mean? You'll see a lot of dead civilians and won't see dead militants. You won't have a clear idea of what Hamas military strategy is. And this is the kicker. The center of the coverage will be a number, a casualty number that is provided to the press by something called the Gaza Health Ministry, which is Hamas. … So since 2008, certainly since 2014, when we had another serious war in Gaza, the press has not been covering in Gaza. The press has been essentially an amplifier for one of the most poisonous ideologies on earth. Hamas has figured out how to make the press amplify its messaging rather than covering Hamas.
