A CBS News journalist praised a Palestinian terror group and came into contact with terrorists while serving as a public official in Gaza, a media watchdog reports.
Marwan al-Ghoul, who has worked with CBS as a producer based in Gaza for more than two decades, spoke at a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) event back in 2018, according to an investigation by Honest Reporting.
In his remarks, Al-Ghoul praised his relative, a prominent member of the terror group, for “maintaining the noble national values established by the leading martyrs … and those who followed their path of struggle and martyrdom,” the report said.
“The fact that Al-Ghoul was invited to address an official event of the group suggests his (and his family’s) affiliation with it is deep. The effect such an affiliation might have on his ‘journalistic’ work cannot be underestimated,” the investigation stated.
The PFLP is a terror group that has been linked to many acts of violence against Israeli military and civilians, including suicide bombings.
Al-Ghoul also reportedly served as a public official, sitting on the Gaza City municipality council, which is controlled by Hamas. As an official, he came into contact with terrorists, according to the investigation.
“What’s clear is that such a public role, in an enclave ruled by terrorists and where terrorists are hosted by the mayor, cannot be done without problematic ties. Especially for a journalist who needs to cover political and civilian issues objectively,” the investigation says.
CBS has relied on Al-Ghoul’s reporting in the months since October 7, when Hamas launched a brutal and deadly surprise attack on Israeli civilians. Since then, Israel has waged a counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza.
“Israel says that the war is on Hamas,” al-Ghoul said in a CBS interview from January. “But on the ground, it’s completely different. Most of the children or the victims who came to the hospital, I saw them with my eyes, and everyone can see them on TV news, they are children and women.”
Al-Ghoul is just the latest member of the media to be accused of having ties to terrorism. A CNN freelancer also based in Gaza once allegedly served in a Hamas-run body and took a picture of himself with a senior Hamas leader, another investigation by Honest Reporting reported earlier this month.
Legacy media outlets have also been criticized for have a general anti-Israel bias.
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