Voice of America Removes Word ‘Terrorist’ from Story on Hamas Music Festival Attack

AVoice of America video story about the aftermath of the Hamas music-festival massacre was edited before publication to remove the word “terrorist” as a label for the perpetrators of the attack, National Review has learned.

According to internal VOA emails reviewed by NR, editors instead swapped in the word “militant” — the term preferred by some international news services for its purported neutrality. Other parts of the three-minute-long segment remained untouched. But the last-minute correction forced the reporter, an Israeli woman, to redo part of the voice-over she had initially recorded.

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Jimmy Quinn

Jimmy Quinn is the former national security correspondent for National Review.

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AVoice of America video story about the aftermath of the Hamas music-festival massacre was edited before publication to remove the word “terrorist” as a label for the perpetrators of the attack, National Review has learned.

According to internal VOA emails reviewed by NR, editors instead swapped in the word “militant” — the term preferred by some international news services for its purported neutrality. Other parts of the three-minute-long segment remained untouched. But the last-minute correction forced the reporter, an Israeli woman, to redo part of the voice-over she had initially recorded.