Want to win prestigious photojournalism awards from leading public universities? Just embed with a crew of Islamist killers and snap pics of them exulting in the murder of an innocent young woman! That’s what the Associated Press did, taking first place in the “Team Picture Story of the Year” category at the Pictures of the Year International competition with a collection including the monstrous image from Oct. 7 of Hamas thugs in the back of a pickup, baying and howling over the presumably dead body of 22-year-old Shani Louk. Louk, a Nova festival attendee, had committed the heinous crime of being Jewish . The win and the photo raise questions that everyone involved must answer. First, how on earth did the AP lensmen get close enough to take this photo? Sure seems like they had connection with Hamas crews — as a new lawsuit convincingly alleges. We know that at least one Oct. 7 pic-snapper, Hassan Eslaiah, was captured on film getting a big smooch from Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar years before he became a “journalist.” The other question: What were the contest chiefs thinking? The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute of the Missouri School of Journalism — the oldest J-school in the country — runs the POYI show. Would the muckamucks there have given out a similar prize in 2021 to photos of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd? Imagine the outrage. Guess it’s different when the victim’s a Jew! Remember: Shani Louk wasn’t killed by famine,
fire or flood. A terrorist group murdered her because she was the wrong religion. Given how widespread Hamas sympathy is in the media and academia , it’s impossible not to see the AP’s victory despite the inclusion of this vile image as a tacit nod of approval.