Journalists Beware




It would have been easy to miss the few paragraphs tucked in the side column of the daily newspaper. What caught my eye was the headline: 

Gaza journalist says he was tortured in jail








Ayman al-Aloul  ynetnews.com




Gaza is a hotbed for Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, but it wasn’t about Israel this time. Palestinian journalist Ayman al-Aloul was imprisoned for publicly criticizing the Islamic Hamas control in Gaza. 

According to Al-Aloul, the nine days in Hamas custody made him a “new man”. Torture and beatings really do facilitate attitude adjustments.








No longer delving into political topics, the journalist will now focus on cheery things like sports, food, and fashion. As Al-Aloul says, “I’ve decided not to talk about the general situation anymore. The experience I went through was very difficult.” 

Hamas convinced Ayman al-Aloul that he should refrain from writing about his government and their control. I’m sure other Gaza journalists have taken note.






We don’t torture our reporters here in America. There's no need to use jail cell beatings, when money works just fine. The rich and powerful control much of what we read and see. Filtering news into soundbites may seem authentic, but the content is pre-approved.


Many hard-working journalists provide 24/7 news coverage and some risk their lives to give us on-the-scene coverage. Yet, it's still a top down organization and the journalists don't always have the opportunity to share what they know. 



Associated Press Woodward-Bernstein



Remember Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward? We could sure use some more rogue journalists—willing to search and share the truth. Our nation needs it. 

We Americans may get distracted, but we aren’t stupid. The Hamas strong-arm tactics can silence the journalists there, but let's not allow money to silence our journalists here. 

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