After HonestReporting exposed a CNN producer who covered Israel, despite posting “TeamHitler” and pro-Hamas messages on Twitter, the network stop working with him.
By United with Israel Staff
“After HonestReporting notified CNN of their producer’s offensive social media history, a spokesperson immediately assured us the matter was being investigated,” said media watchdog HonestReporting in a recent statement.
“A deafening silence followed, however, leaving us wondering whether CNN was serious about dealing with an employee who glorified Adolf Hitler and lavished praise on a terrorist group,” HonestReporting added.
The employee to whom HonestReporting referred is Idris Muktar Ibrahim, who was contributing reporting to the network’s international desk, including coverage of Israel.
Ibrahim received a degree from the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, but was exposed by HonestReporting for adding the hashtag “Team Hitler” to a post about a soccer match between Israel and Germany.
He also championed the U.S.-designated Palestinian terror group Hamas, referring to its members as “modern day freedpm fighters [sic]” who are “definding [sic] their land.”
HonestReporting noted that “just hours after Ibrahim posted” this tweet, “a Hamas rocket struck a kindergarten in the southern Israeli town of Gan Yavneh.”
After CNN initially failed to take action, HonestReporting called on its social media followers to contact the network.
After that, CNN sent HonestReporting this message: “Idris was employed as a freelancer by CNN. We were not aware of these tweets, which were published before we began working with him. We have informed him that we will no longer be working with him in the future.”
JNS.org quoted HonestReporting executive director Gil Hoffman as saying, “We at HonestReporting will continue to make sure that those who call for the annihilation of the Jewish people will not report the news about the Jewish state.”