AP faces social media backlash for Hezbollah pager attack survivor story

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US envoy to Lebanon unbelievably satisfied with proposal to disarm Hezbollah

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack met with Lebanon's president and said he was unbelievably satisfied with Beirut's response to a proposal to disarm the Hezbollah terrorist group. (ASSOCIATED PRESS, LEBANESE PRESIDENCY HANDOUT.)

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The Associated Press shocked many social media users on Wednesday for publishing a story they viewed as sympathetic to Hezbollah terrorists.

In September, over 3,000 members of the Iran-backed terror group were injured and at least 30 killed when a covert Israeli operation launched two waves of near-simultaneous detonations of the organization's pagers and other electronic devices across Lebanon and Syria.

The AP story focused on how "[s]urvivors of Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah struggle to recover."

Reporters Bassem Mroue and Sarah El Deeb spoke to six people wounded during the attack, whom they acknowledged were all "Hezbollah officials or fighters or members of their families."

Hezbollah members salute and raise the group's yellow flags during the funeral of their fallen comrades Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya in south Lebanon on April 17, 2024.  (AFP via Getty Images)

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Despite Hezbollah being designated a terror organization by the United States, the article does not refer to Hezbollah members as "terrorists" and instead describes them as a "militant group" or "a major Shiite political party with a wide network of social institutions." 

One of the people interviewed was Mahdi Sheri, a 23-year-old Hezbollah fighter who was injured in the pager attack. The AP reported on how he returned from the frontlines and was spending time with his family before his pager vibrated, and he went to go check it. Sheri lost his left eye and has very limited sight out of his right eye, according to the AP. 

Mahdi Sheri, a 23-year-old Hezbollah fighter, had been ordered back to the frontline on the day of the attack. Before leaving, he charged his pager and spent time with family. For his security, no mobile phones were allowed in the house while he was there.

"For a while, he could see shadows with his remaining eye. With time, that dimmed. He can no longer play football. Hezbollah is helping him find a new job. Sheri realizes it's impossible now to find a role alongside Hezbollah fighters," the AP wrote.

X users roasted the story for presenting Hezbollah terrorists in a compassionate light, calling it "jaw-dropping." 

"This is me; playing my tiny violin," Twitchy’s Amy Curtis remarked.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck wrote, "Nothing shocks me anymore with media but this really did. They’re literally presenting Hezbollah terrorists as victims. Absolutely jaw-dropping."

"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," Antonin Scalia Law School professor Adam Mossoff commented.

"The hostages held by Hamas struggle to survive," radio host Tony Katz wrote.

"The AP never got over what Israel did to their office mates," conservative writer Kate Hyde said.

In 2021, reports emerged that the AP had shared a Gaza office building with Hamas military intelligence, though it has denied knowing this.

TOPSHOT - Mourners attend the funeral of a fighter with the Lebanese Shiite movements Hezbollah, who was killed in clashes with Israel, during his funeral in the southern suburb of Beirut on October 23, 2023. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images) (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

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Republican members of Congress also shared and criticized the story across X.

"AP: Won’t someone PLEASE think of the terrorists?!" Georgia Rep. Mike Collins joked.

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney wrote, "Revoking the AP’s credentials is one of the best decisions of the last 6 months. It’s an utter disgrace that this ‘news’ agency is writing puff-piece articles designed to garner sympathy for terrorists."

"The AP is running sob stories for Hezbollah terrorists," Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy wrote.

The Associated Press has been accused of sympathizing with Hezbollah in the past. (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, AP Media Relations & Corporate Communications Director Patrick Maks said that the outlet stood by the story.

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In September, days after the pager attack, the outlet also came under fire after referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as "charismatic and shrewd" in his obituary. 

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