Chuck Ross of the Washington Free Beacon documents another instance of media malpractice.
A freelance reporter who plays a leading role in the Wall Street Journal‘s coverage of Hezbollah has repeatedly praised the terrorist group while condemning “the Israeli enemy,” a Washington Free Beacon analysis has found.
Adam Chamseddine, a Beirut-based reporter, has written or contributed to more than three dozen reports as a freelance contributor for the Journal since last year, including providing coverage of the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Chamseddine was also the lead reporter for a story on Israel’s use of pagers to assassinate Hezbollah commanders. And he was one of the reporters for a Journal story last week that Iran is rearming its “militia allies,” like Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
While writing for the Journal, Chamseddine, a former reporter for the pro-Hezbollah newspaper As-Safir, has expressed stark anti-Israel views while hailing groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
He has referred to “the Israeli enemy” in multiple social media posts, according to English translations of his missives, written in Arabic. After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Chamseddine asserted that “female journalists are dismembered by direct Israeli targeting” and criticized what he said was “Israeli criminality” in response to the Hamas attack, while making no similar condemnation of the terrorist group. He touted an interview “for those who want to understand the Hamas movement” with Tarek Hamoud, the head of the Palestinian Return Centre, which has reportedly been linked to Hamas.
Chamseddine’s anti-Israel views could raise questions about his work for the Journal. The paper, owned by conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch, has faced scrutiny over the anti-Israel sympathies of other reporters covering the region.
Abeer Ayyoub, a Gaza-based freelancer for the Journal, lamented the “Jewish mafia” on social media and posted Hamas propaganda videos after Oct. 7, the Free Beacon reported. The watchdog group HonestReporting, which uncovered Ayyoub’s posts, has criticized the Journal’s coverage of Israel and noted that the paper uses the term “militant group” to refer to Hezbollah, downplaying its terrorist activities.
