Why I Chose to Leave the News Industry: The Journey of a Palestinian American Journalist
While attending a lecture at my local mosque, I felt a deep connection to the sixth verse in a chapter of the Quran. It emphasized the importance of verifying news and avoiding the spread of rumors or misinformation. In that moment, I felt validated in my role as a journalist and reassured that my efforts to share factual and important information were seen and rewarded by God.
Growing up in Dearborn, Michigan, I felt isolated when I pursued a career in journalism, as most of my peers went into engineering or medicine. Dearborn, with its large Arab population, had a deep mistrust of the news media due to years of inaccurate and biased coverage of the Middle East and Muslim and Arab communities. This lack of representation and negative portrayal in the news led many Arab families to tune out altogether.
My goal as a journalist was to correct this narrative, to accurately tell stories and hold those in power accountable. I believed that journalism had the power to change policies, uncover government secrets, and rectify wrongful convictions. I wanted to redirect that power to my own community, which had been vilified and marginalized by the news industry and government for decades.
I fell in love with storytelling during my college years, reporting for the campus paper and interning at various media outlets. I even had the opportunity to intern at the prestigious New York Times. My family, proud of my work, shared my stories on social media and
