Lawsuit: Palestinian American television reporter banned from covering Dearborn, Gaza war

A Palestinian American television reporter who says he was fired from CBS News Detroit (WWJ-TV) has filed suit against the station, alleging he was discriminated and retaliated against after complaining about what he saw as its anti-Arab bias.

The suit filed Thursday in federal court on behalf of Ibrahim Samra, 27, alleges the multimedia journalist was singled out by management over his social media posts and asked about his views on Hamas in the wake of the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He was also allegedly prevented from covering stories related to Dearborn or the war in Gaza during the conflict’s first three months.

A spokesperson for CBS Detroit declined comment, saying “We do not comment on pending litigation or employee matters.”

The station fired Samra on Feb. 28, after refusing to air a piece he produced on the “uncommitted” campaign that encouraged Michiganders to show their opposition to the war in the state’s recent presidential primary, the suit says.

He was told he was fired for his social media posts that “violated CBS news standards and policies,” his attorney, Amanda Ghannam, said.

“All Mr. Sambra wanted to do was report on his local community and have the coverage be more balanced,” Ghannam told the Free Press. “It’s a pretty clear-cut case of, once he started raising the issue, at that point he’s a troublemaker, and we can’t have this guy in here complaining about racism and discrimination — we gotta get rid of him.”

A Chicago native, Samra was recruited to CBS Detroit in 2022 after a stint at WNDU-16 in South Bend, Indiana, the suit says. His assigned coverage area at CBS included the heavily Arab American communities of Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, as well as portions of Downriver, his attorney told the Free Press.

Samra’s problems at the station began shortly after the war broke out, when the suit says he attempted to raise his concerns about a “bias” in coverage. Its newscasts had prioritized local Israeli perspectives over Arab ones, and non-Arab employees had been permitted to speak openly on and off air about living in Israel and to publicize their opinions about the war, the suit alleges.

At one point, a CBS news standards and practices official told Samra she took issue with all of his war-related Instagram video posts, the suit said.

The account includes Samra's own videos and reposted videos of antiwar demonstrations. The video his attorney says managers initially questioned him about — of a Chicago demonstration he attended while on leave for an ailing family member — “had not reported, analyzed, or offered any opinion.”

After the station “excluded” him from covering war-related stories, including one he pitched about a Livonia resident trapped in Gaza, the suit says Samra filed a formal complaint about his treatment and the station’s coverage.

The ensuing investigation by the station’s parent company, Paramount Pictures, found “that some of the concerns raised (by Samra) constituted missed opportunities as to news coverage,” but did not substantiate any company policy violations, according to a memo Ghannam shared with the Free Press.

Though the notice of the investigation’s findings said station managers would be “more transparent and flexible in scheduling and assigning stories, as well as providing clarity as to why pitches are or are not approved,” the suit says Samra was only permitted to cover a “handful” of war-related stories and continued to be falsely accused of violating policies.

He was allegedly fired shortly after complaining about the station’s refusal to run his story on the “vote uncommitted” campaign and posting the three-part video to his own social media channels.

In a letter he sent to station managers and included in the suit, Samra denied he'd exhibited bias in covering the campaign.

“In the end, I am being accused of driving a certain agenda and ‘political stance’ in my stories as well as ‘working in conjunction with other organizations,’” he wrote. “There is not any sufficient evidence that has been provided that suggests those things.”

Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter at the Free Press. Contact her atvikonomova@freepress.com.