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Capitol Notebook: New York Times responds to Iowa AG Brenna Bird over allegations of Hamas ties

LEE-GAZETTE DES MOINES BUREAU Dec 7, 2023 1

Watch Now: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird speaks at anti-abortion rally one year post-Dobbs, in June, 2023.

The New York Times responded to a letter from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s questioning whether freelance journalists who worked with the organization had ties to Hamas.

In a letter on Wednesday, the Times' director of communications Charlie Stadtlander called the claims “inflammatory allegations based on false assumptions and debunked social media posts.”

Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird

Bird

On Monday, Bird and 13 other attorneys general sent a letter to the Times, Associated Press, Reuters and CNN arguing the news organizations may have provided “material support to terrorists” by paying for photographs from journalists that had been alleged to have ties to Hamas.

The attorneys general cited a report from HonestReporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog, which questioned whether freelance photojournalists for the organizations had advance knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

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“You should ensure that you are taking all necessary steps to prevent your organizations’ from contracting with members of terror organizations,” Bird wrote in the letter.

The Times has denied it had any knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack. Stadtlander reiterated in the letter that "the only connection The New York Times has to Hamas is that we report on the organization fearlessly and at times at great risk."

He pointed to later statements from HonestReporting, which said it did not have evidence that any journalist was embedded with Hamas and was satisfied with the explanations from the media outlets.

"I realize that the purveyors of disinformation online have widely and recklessly spread the lie of “embedded journalists,'" Stadtlander wrote. "But it does real harm when public officials embrace such falsehoods and give them credibility."

New York Times responds to Iowa AG Brenna Bird

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