Left-wing news outlet Politico has been criticised by its own leadership over its pro-Hamas reporting on the Israeli military strikes.
The coverage was condemned as ‘one-sided Hamas support,’ designed to endorse the leadership of the terrorist organisation.
On March 18, Politico uploaded a piece from the Associated Press on the strikes, ignoring the context and accepting casualty figures from Hamas without question.
Martín Varsavsky, a Jewish-Argentinian entrepreneur who, since 2014, has been on the board of directors of Axel Springer, the Berlin-based European multinational media company that owns Politico, derided the article for its “one-sided Hamas support”.
“It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and that Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas that are not believed to be accurate,” Varsavsky said.
I am on the board of Axel Springer that owns Político. I consider this article one sided Hamas support. It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and thar Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas… https://t.co/TDWcfCaHYQ
— Martin Varsavsky (@martinvars) March 18, 2025
On March 18, writing in Spanish on X, he added that the article was, in his eyes, “an endorsement of the Hamas terrorist organisation and bad journalism”, adding the “obvious” fact was “that the attack comes after a long refusal by Hamas to hand over the hostages“.
In another post on X, Varavsky said: “Gaza health ministry is Hamas. The strikes were targeted against the Hamas military, the same ones who were dressed in Hamas uniforms, parading the killing of babies.”
“If Hamas returns the hostages the war is over. But they don’t want peace.”
One user on X asked if, as a board member of Axel Springer, Varsavsky could do something about the coverage, to which he replied he was “working on it”.
Axel Springer has a well-documented pro-Israel stance, which is explicitly embedded in its corporate mission statement, the “Essentials”.
Established by founder Axel Springer in the 1960s, these guiding principles have shaped the company’s values.
The second of these five core principles affirmed its support for “the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel”.
The latest Israeli action took place around 2am on March 18, when its forces launched several air strikes on mid-level Hamas commanders and some senior Hamas political officials in Gaza.
This appeared to mark the ending of the ceasefire between Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hamas.
IDF Arabic Spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee urged Gazan residents to move deeper into the territory, away from the Israeli border, to avoid potential attacks amid the renewed hostilities.
According to Israel, Hamas was able to renew its military capacities and was believed to have a force of 25,000 fighters, while Islamic Jihad was believed to have a force of 5,000 people.
Both groups were said to be rebuilding defensive military positions and Israel was reportedly considering a new land invasion, if needed.
Hamas reported hundreds of casualties in the latest incident but, for outsiders, numbers from Gaza were impossible to verify and Hamas was notorious for not making distinctions between terrorists and civilians.
That did not stop AP or Politico from publishing the figures from Hamas as read.
Both stressed that the attack “shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza”.
They quoted Hamas, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of upending the ceasefire agreement and exposing the hostages ”to an unknown fate”, citing a Palestinian resident as saying: “Nobody wants to fight.”
AP and Politico also reported: “The White House sought to blame Hamas for the renewed fighting.”
The fact that the Israeli strike served a military purpose was only mentioned half way down their articles.
Earlier this year, AP was banned from “pooled” events in the US White House, which stated the news agency was “divisive” and spread “misinformation”.
AP retained general White House credentials but lost its century-long role in the daily press pool, with the US Government noting that it was a privilege, not a right, to cover the US President up close.
President Donald Trump has called AP an organisation of “radical-Left lunatics”.
An attempt by German-owned media outlet Politico Europe to link a number of populist parties operating within the European Union to “fascists” has been lambasted by MEPs. https://t.co/LOI5I3c5Lj
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 22, 2023
