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Media Coverage of Hostage Release Was Shameful — But Three Outlets Disgraced Themselves
Released hostage Or Levy, Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, February 8, 2025. Photo: Haim Zach/GPO/Handout via REUTERS
On Saturday, there was no way for the masked terrorists — green headbands wrapped around their anonymous faces — even to attempt hiding the hideous abuses they had inflicted on their captives. No showy stage parade could distract the world from what was plainly visible: three Israeli civilians, violently abducted from their homes, now bearing the marks of 16 months of unspeakable torture.
As the families of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy, and Ohad Ben Ami watched live footage of their release, the initial flood of relief quickly gave way to shock and agony. Their loved ones were unrecognizable. It was a horrific sight.
We have criticized the media’s coverage of these hostage releases from the very beginning. Sometimes, it’s sheer sloppiness —misleading terminology, factual errors, like outlets falsely referring to kidnapped Israeli civilians as “soldiers.”
Other times, it’s far more insidious: a grotesque imbalance, an eagerness to humanize Palestinian prisoners — most of them convicted of violent, deadly attacks against Israelis — while downplaying the suffering of Israeli hostages.
But even by these dismal standards, Saturday’s coverage of the hostage-prisoner exchange was a new low.
And a few media organizations in particular, deserve special condemnation: the BBC, CNN, and The Guardian.
The coverage of Saturday’s events does not deserve to be classed as news. The reporters who wrote these pieces and the editors who approved them are not journalists in any meaningful sense of the word. And their readers and viewers should know the sheer contempt these media organizations have for them.
The BBC’s reporting marked a new nadir for the taxpayer-funded British broadcaster, with its live news coverage stating there were “concerns over appearance of hostages on both sides.”
“Concerns over appearance of hostages on both sides” — @BBCNews.
There are no “both sides” here.
What a disgusting false moral equivalence between actual Israeli hostages held by Hamas & Palestinian prisoners jailed for terror offenses.
It’s the BBC. Why aren’t we surprised? pic.twitter.com/FbCUZTk7mC
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 9, 2025
Yes, the publicly funded BBC referred to convicted terrorists, imprisoned for murder, as “hostages,” equating them with innocent civilians kidnapped by Hamas — a UK-proscribed terror group. And as for those “concerns over appearances”? That was how the BBC summarized the horror of seeing three innocent men tortured and starved for over a year, likening them to Palestinian terrorists who are fed, housed, and in no danger of being dragged from their cells in the middle of the night to be executed.
The BBC’s website coverage was no better. For hours, its live news homepage featured a celebratory image of Palestinian prisoners embracing their families, while the release of the emaciated hostages was relegated to the second half of the headline — deemed unworthy of the lead photo.
This wasn’t sloppy journalism. This was an editorial choice.
The @BBCWorld homepage. The haunting images of starved Israeli hostages? Nowhere to be seen.
But a front-page moment for convicted murderers embracing their families.
Sickening. pic.twitter.com/H6hz7brzk4
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 8, 2025
CNN’s coverage of the hostage handover also led with grotesque attempts to equate hostages and prisoners, with its lead story claiming that “many of [the prisoners] appeared emaciated and in poor health” — a statement that contradicts even the Palestinians’ own unsubstantiated claim that seven of the 183 prisoners were “transferred to hospital” upon release.
Meanwhile, The Guardian described the Palestinian prisoners and the starved Israeli hostages as “gaunt captives” in a headline that amounts to journalistic depravity.
The @guardian’s latest disgrace: equating Israeli hostages starved in Hamas captivity with convicted Palestinian terrorists who were never deprived of food.
This is journalistic moral rot. pic.twitter.com/esRi2g4nUe
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 9, 2025
And yet, these are just three of the worst offenders — singled out because their coverage so clearly exposed just how deep the media rot has set. Western media outlets are quite literally adopting the language of Islamist terror groups, describing Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives as “hostages” and “captives,” making excuses, and acting as apologists for the same terrorists who starved these three innocent men after kidnapping them. They then have the audacity to draw morally repugnant comparisons to legitimately imprisoned criminals.
Too many journalists looked at images that echoed the Nazi Holocaust — and seemed entirely unaffected. Instead of doing their jobs and reporting the plain truth, they reached for language that softened the horror, describing the hostages as merely “gaunt” and “weakened,” “pale” and “thin” — glossing over their final torturous humiliation on stage.
The three released Israeli hostages weren’t just “gaunt” as @Reuters claims. It’s far worse and shouldn’t have shocked only Israelis.
And what’s also worse? It wasn’t “dozens” of Palestinians freed. It was 183, including 18 serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis. pic.twitter.com/p1GbaZhpL5
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 9, 2025
On Saturday evening, Israel’s Government Press Office issued a statement condemning the media’s attempts to “establish a comparison and/or symmetry” between the hostages and the legitimately imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, calling it a narrative that “runs contrary to every ethical standard of journalism.”
The three outlets singled out here showed a total disregard for journalistic standards and, worse, for basic human decency. Their coverage wasn’t just biased. It was a moral disgrace.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media Coverage of Hostage Release Was Shameful — But Three Outlets Disgraced Themselves first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Criticizes Nation-Wide Strike That ‘Strengthens Hamas’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday harshly criticized nationwide demonstrations calling for the release of hostages and an end to the Gaza war.
Speaking at a government meeting, Netanyahu argued that such protests only strengthen Hamas and risk repeating the atrocities of October 7.
“Those who call today for an end to Hamas’s war not only harden the terrorist group’s position and delay the release of our hostages, but also guarantee that the horrors of October 7 will be repeated and that we will have to fight an endless war,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister defended Israel’s ongoing military operations, citing strikes carried out in recent days: “In the last 24 hours, the navy attacked power stations in Yemen, IDF soldiers struck Zeitoun and eliminated dozens of terrorists in Gaza, and the air force targeted Hezbollah commanders and launch sites in Lebanon.”
He added that Israel’s response in Lebanon was consistent with the ceasefire agreement: “According to this agreement, we will meet with fire any violation and any attempt to arm Hezbollah.”
Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel’s conditions for ending the conflict, stressing the need for continued security control in Gaza and the group’s long-term demilitarization. He rejected Hamas’s demand for a full Israeli withdrawal: “They want us to leave Gaza entirely — from the north, the south, the Philadelphi corridor, and the security perimeter. That would only allow them to reorganize, rearm, and attack us again.”
The war has now entered its 681st day, with 49 hostages still held by Hamas.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Israelis joined a general strike organized by the Hostage Families Forum, calling for the return of all captives in a single deal and for an end to the war. Demonstrations spread across the country, at major intersections, government ministers’ homes, and familiar protest hubs such as Kaplan Junction and the Ayalon highways.
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Family Releases Footage of Matan Zangauker in Captivity
A screenshot of a video released by the family of hostage Matan Zangauker.
i24 News – The family of Matan Zangauker, the Israeli hostage held by Hamas since October 7, shared new footage of him from captivity on Sunday evening.
The video, obtained by the IDF, was recorded several months ago.
In the recording, 32-year-old Matan looks directly into the camera, addressing his loved ones: “Tato, Shani, Ilana, I miss you. God willing, we’ll see each other soon. All my friends and acquaintances, go out and make noise like only you know how.”
Matan was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his partner Ilana Gritsievsky, who was released in a hostage deal last year. Since then, Matan has remained in Hamas custody while his family continues to fight for his return.
On the national protest day calling for the release of hostages, Ilana staged a poignant display at Hostages Square. Dressed in a wedding gown beneath a chuppah, she symbolically “married” Matan in his absence. “Matan, my curly-haired one, if you hadn’t been abducted, we could already be married. In a single day, our world was destroyed, and you’re not here to hold me. I’m fighting for you until you come back,” she said.
Matan’s mother, Einav, has emerged as a leading voice in the campaign for the hostages’ release and has sharply criticized Israel’s political leadership, accusing them of undermining potential hostage deals.
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Hamas Rejects Israel’s Gaza Relocation Plan
Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelter in a tent camp as the Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza, in Gaza City August 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said on Sunday that Israel’s plan to relocate residents from Gaza City constitutes a “new wave of genocide and displacement” for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.
The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a “blatant deception.”
The Israeli military has said it is preparing to provide tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of its plan to relocate residents from combat zones to the south of the enclave “to ensure their safety.”
Hamas said in a statement that the deployment of tents under the guise of humanitarian purposes is a blatant deception intended to “cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute.”
Israel said earlier this month that it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban center. The plan has raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, which is home to about 2.2 million people.