Florida - Monday December 12, 2023: Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and a coalition of attorneys general have issued issued a warning to media companies with possible ties to foreign terrorist organizations.
Attorney General Moody and the coalition sent a letter reminding the publisher of the New York Times, the CEO of the Associated Press, the CEO and editor in chief of CNN and the president of Reuters that providing material support to terrorists and terror organizations is a crime. This follows reports that individuals hired by these outlets have troubling ties to Hamas.
Read the full letter here.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Following the abhorrent Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, reports began to emerge of news organizations employing people embedded within Hamas and potentially with knowledge of the attack before it was carried out. I, along with 13 other attorneys general, are putting the media companies on notice: ensure that you are following federal and state law.”
The letter states, “If your outlet’s current hiring practices led you to give material support to terrorists, you must change these policies going forward. Otherwise, we must assume any future support of terrorist organizations by your stringers, correspondents, contractors, and similar employees is knowing behavior.”
The letter goes on to cite a recent bipartisan congressional letter to Reuters saying, “Those lawmakers ask several questions that should be answered, including whether Reuters had prior knowledge of the attack and whether the Reuters journalist had contact with Hamas or its agents before the attack.”
The attorneys general of the following states joined Attorney General Moody in sending the letter: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.