Why do the media use Hamas as sources?

It's rare for a mainstream media outlet to publish an article so full of misinformation that it makes a fool of itself as a credible news source.

We answered this in February regarding the UPI's inability to produce reliable information. Five months later, nothing has changed on the press side. Serial offender Adam Schrader still shamelessly uses terrorist groups and state-run Palestinian agencies as primary sources in his articles.

Being a journalist carries immense responsibility. Reporting complex global issues to the public is not something casual. While many have an agenda, it is simply unacceptable and irresponsible for a journalist to systematically copy apparent press releases from recognized terrorist groups and pass them off as their own stories.

In the past few days alone, two articles were published that appeared to be content sponsored by both Hamas and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In the first article, entitled Haniyeh praises Hamas diplomatic efforts in Eid message, Schrader's only source is Hamas, and the only person cited is Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. The entire article strokes Haniyeh's ego, describing him as the diplomat of the century.

Schrader points to Hamas' so-called ceasefire proposal in early May, which he said was approved by Qatar and Egypt.

The Hamas leader highlighted the May 6 approval of a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt and Qatar, which outlined a three-phase plan to defuse the ongoing conflict. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted this proposal under certain conditions.

If he had integrity, Schrader would write that a deal could not be approved if Israel was not involved in the negotiation process. He failed to recognize this important fact because, again, he only used Hamas as a source.

Likewise, his second article, entitled Israel uses UNRWA building as sniper post, report says: is equally absurd – citing WAFA, as well as Amnesty International, a Palestinian NGO, and the politicized Israeli organization BTselem – none of whom have opposing views on the report in question.

The official Palestinian news agency, known as WAFA, reported that Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian and injured a minor with shrapnel in the Fara refugee camp, northeast of the city. from Nablus in the occupied West Bank, during the operation.

The arrest comes as nearly 9,300 Palestinian prisoners have been arrested and are currently being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. Around 250 prisoners are Palestinian children, and their supporters often equate the practice with kidnapping.

It's unclear whether the intentions are deliberately malicious, agenda-driven, or the result of pure laziness. Regardless, no context is given to the IDF raid on a UN aid center or the arrest of a Palestinian in the raid and others in previous raids.

Even if he attributes the facts to their sources, one cannot ignore his one-sided report.

We suspected that Schrader was repeating a Hamas public relations document in February when we wrote that the UPI was indeed using Hamas's own arguments.

In this case, it is not just Hamas, but also other supporters of terrorism.

As we said at the time, full of errors, blatant anti-Israeli bias and some appalling Hamas-inspired justifications, it's hard to believe that a supposedly respectable news agency would publish such articles .

or even continue to employ this writer. He doesn't even come close to doing his job. On the other hand, the UPI seems to be a lost cause.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog that focuses on anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias – where a version of this article first appearance.