NY Post Columnist Decried For ‘Disgusting’ and ‘Bigoted’ Attack on Pakistani-American Reporter

New York Post columnist John Podhoretz received heavy backlash on Thursday after he referred to Pakistani-American HuffPost journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed as “the correspondent for Hamas.”

After Ahmed reported that “many diplomats are alarmed by Washington’s largely unrestricted approval of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas,” and that State Department officials were concerned about President Joe Biden sidelining experts, Podhoretz lashed out at Ahmed on social media.

“The correspondent for Hamas weighs in,” wrote Podhoretz — who previously served as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush — on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday.

Journalists quickly came to Ahmed’s defense and condemned Podhoretz’s “Islamophobic” and “racist” attack.

“A disgusting attack on @AkbarSAhmed, a great reporter who has done an excellent job surfacing internal State Dept angst over what’s happening,” reacted Washington Post global affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor, while New York Times diplomatic correspondent Edward Wong wrote, “No journalist should ever be subjected to this kind of attack. And correspondents who have followed the work of @AkbarSAhmed know his reporting is fair and accurate.”

https://twitter.com/zachdcarter/status/1720220741944201291

Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce called Podhoretz’s remark “pure character assassination,” while others called it a “reprehensible smear” and “defamatory and bigoted.”

Despite calls for Podhoretz to apologize, the columnist doubled down on his remarks, lashing out at critics who replied to his initial post.

On Fox News The Five, Wednesday, co-host Jesse Watters railed against “Arab Americans” and “the Muslim world,” and declared, “We’ve had it with them,” which prompted the White House to demand an apology for the “hateful” and “unacceptable” remarks.

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