NPR didn’t quote a single member of Michigan synagogue after attack — but interviewed terrorist’s pals in Lebanon
A recent report is raising questions about how NPR covered last month’s attack on a Michigan synagogue, noting that the network did not include comments from members of the congregation that was targeted but instead focused on the attacker’s background overseas.
The March 14 segment on NPR’s “All Things Considered” centered on Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old man who drove a truck into a Jewish preschool at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township. After the crash, Ghazali exchanged gunfire with a security guard and later took his own life. Federal investigators later said he had been motivated by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group.
Rather than highlighting the experiences of those inside the synagogue during the incident, the report sent a journalist to Ghazali’s hometown in Lebanon, about 6,000 miles away. The story, titled “In a small Lebanese town, grief and fear follow the Michigan synagogue attack,” focused on reactions from people in the community where the attacker had lived.
The segment drew criticism from listeners who argued that the coverage appeared to portray the attacker and his relatives sympathetically while giving little attention to the victims. Commentator Batya Ungar-Sargon mocked the approach in a Substack post, saying the broadcast seemed to treat the Lebanese town as the true victim despite the attack targeting a preschool filled with Jewish children.
Additional scrutiny followed when the Israel Defense Forces reported that Ghazali’s brother had served as a commander in Hezbollah.
Another listener, Richard Wilkins, wrote to NPR’s public editor, Kelly McBride, saying the broadcast minimized the brothers’ known connections to the militant group. He argued that the story instead highlighted the emotional impact on the Lebanese community without addressing the presence of Hezbollah supporters there.
McBride initially defended the editorial reasoning behind the report, explaining that the intention was to examine the relationship between the attack in Michigan and the attacker’s family overseas. She said presenting the family’s perspective and describing their situation did not mean the network was excusing Ghazali’s actions or his attempt to harm more than a hundred children.
However, she also acknowledged shortcomings in the broader coverage. While NPR aired multiple reports about the attack, McBride said she was unable to find any that included interviews with rabbis, members of Temple Israel, or families of the children who were inside the building when the incident occurred.
Local news organizations, she noted, had extensively interviewed members of the congregation.
According to McBride, NPR and Michigan Public Radio stopped focusing on the Temple Israel community too quickly after the attack. She said leaving out those perspectives ultimately weakened the overall reporting.
“When important voices are missing from coverage,” McBride wrote, “it distorts the audience’s perception of everything else.”
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