Today's hypocrisy: US "concerned" at Israel banning Al Jazeera - yet the US designates MANY media outlets as "terrorist."

At the White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked for an official reaction to the news that Israel Knesset passed a law giving the prime minister the power to shutter foreign news networks, specifically aimed at Al Jazeera.

She answered,  "If it is true, if it is true, a move like this is concerning. We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important. And the United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do. And that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza. So we believe that work is important, the freedom of the press is important, and if those reports are true, it is concerning to us."

In 2006, the US designated Al Manar TV - a Hezbollah-allied Lebanese TV station - on its terrorist list as a " "Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity." Al Manar TV was banned from being broadcast into the US. The Treasury Department also placed Al Nour Radio and the Lebanese Media Group on the same list as affiliates of Hezbollah.

Al Manar remains on the State Department Terrorist Exclusion list even today. 

Two years earlier, Al Manar was placed on the US terrorist watchlist. But it is hardly the only media company on that OFAC Sanctions List. The database shows all these (apparent) media outlets, amd I found several more after making this list:

Name	Address	Program(s)
AL RA'Y SATELLITE TELEVISION STATION	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL ZAWRAH TELEVISION		IRAQ3
AL-AQSA SATELLITE TELEVISION		SDGT
AL-DONYA TELEVISION CHANNEL	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
AL-DUNYA TELEVISION	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
AL-RA'Y SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL-ZAWARA SATELLITE TELEVISION STATION		IRAQ3
AL-ZAWRA TELEVISION STATION		IRAQ3
DUNIA TELEVISION	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
GENERAL RADIO AND TELEVISION CORPORATION	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
ISLAMIC RADIO AND TELEVISION UNION		ELECTION-EO13848
NATIONAL IRANIAN RADIO AND TELEVISION	Jamejam Street, Valiasr Avenue	IRAN-TRA
RADIO AND TELEVISION CORPORATION	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL AL RA'Y	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
SBC TELEVISION	Al Sufara' Street in the Ya'fur district	IRAQ3
SYRIAN DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF RADIO & TELEVISION EST	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
TELEVISION STATION RUSSIA-1	5th Yamskogo Polya street, 19-21, building 1, Begovoy	RUSSIA-EO14024
THE OPINION SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL NOUR RADIO	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
AL NUR RADIO	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY RADIO REKLAMA NN	32 Belinskogo Street; Office 301	RUSSIA-EO14024
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY RADIO REKLAMA VOLOGDA	7 Lesnaya Street; Tverskoy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
OOO KHOLDING VYBERI RADIO	4 Olkhovskaya Street; Building 2, Floor 5, Suite Part 544; Basmannyy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
OOO RADIO REKLAMA VOLOGDA	7 Lesnaya Street; Tverskoy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
RADIO ANNOUR	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
AMAQ NEWS AGENCY		FTO; SDGT
FARS NEWS AGENCY	Number 1, Shahrood Alley, Ferdowsi Square	IFSR; IRAN-HR; IRGC
FEDERAL NEWS AGENCY LLC	d. 18 litera A. pom. 2-N, UL. Vsevoloda Vishnevskogo	CYBER2
NEVSKIY NEWS LLC	d. 11 korp. 2 pom. 327-N, ul. Staroderevenskaya	CYBER2
NEWS AGENCY INFOROS		CAATSA - RUSSIA; CYBER2; NPWMD
ONLY NEWS	Vul. Hotkevicha Gnata 12, Of. 177	ELECTION-EO13848
TASNIM NEWS AGENCY	South Side First Floor, 2 Plaque 12 Pourfallah Street-Shahid Doctor Hassan Azdi St	IFSR; IRAN-HR; IRGC

The EU banned several Russian media companies as well in 2022. 

What is the difference, exactly, between these dozens of media outlets that the US and EU designates as being terrorist and those that would be limited under Israel's new law?

If anything, Al Jazeera is more directly implicated in terrorism than, say, Russia Today. As MEMRI's damning report showing the links between Al Jazeera and Hamas mentions:

Since the October 7 attack, Hamas's leaders have been managing the war from Doha and conveying their messages mostly via Al-Jazeera. The network has been operating as a propaganda outlet in the service of Hamas 24/7, with hardly any coverage of other topics. The channel expresses unreserved support for Hamas, justifying the deadly attack, showing footage of it obtained from the body-cams of the terrorists, and celebrating it as a victory that brought pride and honor to the Islamic nation.

Some Al-Jazeera journalists have recently been "outed" as Hamas and PIJ fighters. A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Jazeera, Muhammad Wishah, appears to have also been a commander in the military wing of Hamas, according to documents on a laptop found by the Israeli army in a Hamas base in northern Gaza. Wishah, from Al-Buriej in the central Gaza Strip, has featured in Al-Jazeera broadcasts in recent months, with the station calling him one of their journalists. According to the Israeli military sources, however, Wishah is a prominent commander in Hamas's anti-tank missile unit, who began, in late 2022, to work in R&D for the terror group's air unit.[68] A photo that emerged of Wishah together with Yahya Sinwar suggests warm relations between the two.

Another Al-Jazeera correspondent, Ismail Abu Omar, who participated in the October 7 attack, documenting it from within the Gaza Envelope, was airlifted to Doha for medical treatment on February 19 after having been wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah a week earlier. He has been identified as a Hamas platoon deputy commander.[69]

Mustafa Thuraya, an independent journalist who worked with Al-Jazeera TV and Agence France-Press, was, according to documents found by the Israeli army in Gaza, an operative in the Al-Qassam Brigades' Gaza City Brigade, and he specialized in developing drones. Hamza Al-Dahdouh, another Al-Jazeera journalist and photojournalist, was a member of the electronic engineering unit of the PIJ's Northern Gaza Brigade.

The "concern" the US is showing over sanctioning Al Jazeera is just as hypocritical as its "outrage" over the accidental killing of civilians, something the US has done many times over the years, and rarely apologized for.

(h/t Avi)

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