The Associated Press (AP) faced fierce backlash on Wednesday after publishing a sympathetic article about Hezbollah terrorists “struggling to recover” from Israel’s pager attack, with critics slamming the report as terrorist propaganda that would make Nazi sympathizers blush.
The controversy erupted after the AP’s piece, which garnered over one million views on X, detailed the “slow, painful path to recovery” of what the outlet acknowledged were “likely” Hezbollah members and terrorist “dependents.” The lengthy feature reads like a sympathy piece for Iran-backed terrorists, complete with hand-wringing about a Hezbollah fighter who “can no longer play football” after losing an eye in the sophisticated Israeli operation.
Conservative lawmakers and media figures unleashed a torrent of criticism, with Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) calling it “an utter disgrace that this ‘news’ agency is writing puff-piece articles designed to garner sympathy for terrorists.”
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) mocked the piece, writing: “AP: Won’t someone PLEASE think of the terrorists?!”
One of the article’s more grotesque features is how it presents actual terrorists as sympathetic victims. Consider the case of 23-year-old Mahdi Sheri’s supposed tale of woe. A “Hezbollah fighter,” he “had been ordered back to the frontline on the day of the attack.” The device detonated while he examined it, costing him sight in one eye. “He can no longer play football,” the AP laments. “Hezbollah is helping him find a new job.”
Even the AP’s attempt to portray injured children as innocent victims reveals Hezbollah’s criminal conduct. Twelve-year-old Hussein Dheini, whose face was severely injured in the blast, now has difficulty reading and breathing properly. However, he finds himself in this situation because he participated in Hezbollah’s “youth movement” — the terror group’s recruitment program whereby children are fed antisemitic propaganda and trained for future violence, including mass attacks and suicide operations. While his father’s pager caused the boy’s injuries, the child was not removed from Hezbollah’s terrorist network — he was being prepared to join it.
Media personality Katie Pavlich wrote: “Terrorist simping hits new levels at the @ap.”
The Israel War Room account cut to the heart of the matter: “Why is @AP running propaganda for Hezbollah, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that has killed hundreds of Americans??”
Conservative commentator Josh Hammer added that they “literally wrote a sob story piece for the castrated Hezbollah jihadis.”
The criticism intensified when George Mason law professor Adam Mossoff drew a stark parallel: “Imagine in 1944, the Associated Press published a news article about how Nazi SS soldiers ‘struggle to recover’ from wounds they suffered from battles with the Allies in Europe. It’s a moral abomination that this is not a fantasy for the @AP in 2025.”
Radio host Dan O’Donnell wrote: “The @AP is running a story treating literal terrorists as sympathetic victims. You don’t hate the left-wing media enough. You truly don’t.”
The AP’s reporting methodology was equally problematic, with the outlet openly admitting it interviewed “Hezbollah officials or fighters or members of their families” — essentially serving as stenographers for a designated terrorist organization. As media critic Batya Ungar-Sargon noted: “The liberal legacy media are literally the stenographers of terrorists.”
Online commentator Hen Mazzig highlighted the media’s twisted priorities: “You know how biased the AP really is when they show more empathy for injured Hezbollah terrorists than for Israeli hostages.”
Conservative commentator Robby Starbuck was equally blunt: “Nothing shocks me anymore with media but this really did. They’re literally presenting Hezbollah terrorists as victims. Absolutely jaw dropping.”
The September 2024 pager attack, which Netanyahu later confirmed Israel was behind, was a masterpiece of precision warfare that targeted Hezbollah’s communication devices carried by its operatives while minimizing civilian casualties. The operation successfully removed thousands of terrorists from active duty — exactly the kind of surgical strike that should be celebrated, not mourned.
Yet the AP chose to focus on the “human toll” of neutralizing terrorists rather than celebrating the protection of innocent Israeli lives, ignoring the precisely targeted nature of the unprecedented, successful operation that crippled the terrorist organization.
This latest controversy adds to growing concerns about the AP’s credibility, with many pointing to the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the outlet’s credentials as increasingly justified.
The operation has since taken on symbolic significance as an effective counterterrorism measure. During his recent White House meeting with President Trump, Netanyahu presented a golden pager as a gift, highlighting the strike’s success in degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities.
This latest AP piece follows other recent controversies involving Gaza coverage, including reports that an anti-Israel photographer staged photographs of hunger in Gaza and the New York Times‘ acknowledgment that a widely-circulated photo purporting to show starvation actually depicted a child with pre-existing health problems.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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