Israelis campaign for ‘biased’ NBC reporter to get the boot
‘Fire The Liar’ social media initiative wants Egyptian-American Ayman Mohyeldin axed for his reports from Israel, West Bank
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A Facebook campaign to have NBC news reporter Ayman Mohyeldin fired amid claims of bias against Israel has garnered broad support among Israelis.
The campaign is focusing on a recent report in which Mohyeldin erroneously asserted that Israeli security forces had shot dead an unarmed Palestinian.
The “Good Guys” Facebook group published a video last week in which dozens of Israelis called for Mohyeldin to be dismissed. Many of those featured in the video held up signs reading “Fire the liar,” and those behind the clip encouraged others to share on social media pictures of themselves with similar banners to show their support for Mohyeldin’s removal.
Organizers also promised to broadcast a video featuring the banner-touting protesters on a large screen in New York’s Times Square in two weeks’ time.
הוא שקרן. הוא מניפולטור. והוא כתב בכיר של NBC בישראל! אסור לתת לאיימן מוהידין להמשיך לשקר לעולם. בואו נכין כולנו את סרטון הפיטורין שלו, שיוקרן בעוד שבועיים בדיוק בטיימס סקוור בניו-יורק. ביחד נגרום לפיטוריו! שתפו בבקשה לחברים.1. כתבו על נייר FireTheLiar#2. צלמו את עצמכם והעלו לפייסבוק או לטוויטר.3. תייגו: #FireTheLiar—————————–He’s a liar. A manipulator. And an NBC correspondent for Israel! We mustn’t allow Ayman Mohyeldin to continue to lie to the world. Let us prepare his getting fired video together, which will be broadcast two weeks from now in Times Square. Let’s get him fired together! Please share with your friends. 1. Write on a page #FireTheLiar 2. Take a picture of yourselves with the sign and upload to Facebook or Twitter. 3. Tag it #FireTheLiar
Posted by הטובים – מבית קבלה לעם on Saturday, November 7, 2015
By Tuesday afternoon, the video had been shared over 13,000 times on Facebook.
Under the hashtag #FireTheLiar, the petitioners drew particular attention to an incident in which Mohyeldin reported live the aftermath of the October 14 shooting of a Palestinian as he tried to stab a border policemen outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem.
During the broadcast Mohyeldin claimed the dead man had nothing in his hands, but news anchor Jose Diaz-Balart, back in the studio, immediately corrected Mohyeldin and pointed to video footage clearly showing the Palestinian holding a knife. The security forces shot the attacker dead before he was able to injure anyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxSoJi0hlk
The incident caused outrage on social media websites, with many calling for Mohyeldin’s employment to be terminated.
In October, another online petition calling for Mohyeldin to be fired over the stabbing report gained some 30,000 signatures.
