The network issued a vague editor’s note that did not mention the original wording
ABC News in a Tuesday article referred to the Israeli hostages who remain in Hamas captivity as “detainees,” then quietly changed the language, issuing only a vague editor’s note at the bottom of the piece that did not refer to the original wording.
ABC’s original article referenced a proposed ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that the network said would see “about half of the total amount of detainees believed to still be alive in Gaza” released. After the phrasing sparked outrage, ABC removed the word “detainees” from the article and added a note at the bottom: “This story has been updated to refer in one instance to those held by Hamas as hostages.”
The network did not otherwise promote the change or issue an apology.
ABC “just casually calling Israeli hostages ‘detainees’ is about as insulting as it gets,” Fox News’s Joe Concha wrote on X. It is the latest mainstream outlet to frame reporting on Hamas’s hostages from the terrorist group’s perspective.
The New York Times confirmed last month that Hamas operated a tunnel beneath the European Gaza Hospital weeks after casting doubt on its existence. Instead of condemning Hamas for using a hospital as a terror base, the paper called the tunnel “one of the war’s biggest Rorschach tests,” saying it’s “the embodiment of a broader narrative battle between Israelis and Palestinians over how the conflict should be portrayed.”
The Washington Post last month also ran the headline “Israeli Troops Kill Over 30 Near US Aid Site in Gaza, Health Officials Say,” citing Hamas Health Ministry officials. Following criticism, the Post quietly updated the headline—only issuing an editor’s note after the Washington Free Beacon reported on the absence of one.
Freed hostages have reported brutality and torture in Hamas captivity. Eli Sharabi, who lost 40 percent of his body weight during his captivity, said in an interview earlier this year that Hamas tortured, chained, and starved him. He learned upon release that the terrorist group had also murdered his wife and daughters. President Donald Trump, who was “shocked” when he watched excerpts of the interview, invited Sharabi to the White House.
Trump has in total met with nine former Hamas hostages in the White House, including most recently Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old American citizen who was freed after 584 days of torture by Hamas captors.
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