HBO host Bill Maher said Friday that news outlets tend to hesitate before labeling obvious terrorism as such, pointing to early coverage of this week’s attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight bound for Israel.
Speaking during the online “Overtime” segment of “Real Time,” Mr. Maher said, “It did seem like the media is always a little reluctant to call it terrorism when it’s obviously terrorism. After a while, they do.”
“But I noticed when the Hamas propaganda is out there, boy, that gets fast-tracked,” Mr. Maher added.
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Early press descriptions reflected the limited information Flydubai and Israeli authorities were providing at the time. Flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on Wednesday with 174 passengers, including 27 children, and landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after transmitting emergency codes that prompted Israel to scramble fighter jets, Ynet reported. Flydubai said the signal was triggered by a fight between the pilots, and Israeli authorities initially concluded the alert was apparently caused by violence in the cockpit rather than a hijacking.
On Saturday, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigators had found the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist act,” The National reported. Mr. Al Shamsi said the co-pilot attacked the captain on the flight deck with a crash ax and tried to take control of the aircraft, and that investigators are still working to establish the motives and any wider links. Israeli officials had earlier described the incident as a terrorist attack and said the co-pilot, an Omani national, was suspected of trying to crash the plane.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and tried to crash the Boeing 737 Max 8, and Defense Minister Israel Katz called it “an attempted jihadist terror attack,” CBS News reported. An Israeli security official told the network Wednesday that Israel was investigating whether the plot was meant to be a Sept. 11-style attack and whether the suspect acted alone.
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