DOMINANT ANGLE
Israel stands out in the field of headlines: the Israeli press retains Katie Zacharia's admission regarding the bar exam as the cause of her downfall, far more than the pace of departures from the White House.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Thursday evening, on Fox News, Katie Zacharia responded "Correct" to Sean Hannity, who reminded her that she had not passed the bar exam (Jerusalem Post).
- 02
The Washington Post found that she did not pass the bar exam in any state where she lived, and the directories of California, Texas, and Washington do not list her.
- 03
Arutz Sheva reports that Donald Trump dismissed the spokesperson after one week on the job, following a difficult start and questions about her law credentials.
ANALYSIS
Jérusalem, October 16, 2026. The Israeli press is treating Katie Zacharia's departure as a matter of professional credibility, rather than a personal episode. The Jerusalem Post devoted its article to the spokesperson's admission: on Thursday evening, during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, she acknowledged never having passed the bar exam. "You attended Pepperdine Law School but you didn't pass the bar, is that right?" the host asked. "That's right," she replied. The daily newspaper specified that this interview constituted her first direct confirmation, after several days of questioning her credentials.
The Jerusalem Post picked up the Washington Post's investigation: Katie Zacharia did not pass the bar exam in any of the states where she lived, and is therefore not legally authorized to practice, and is neither an "attorney" nor a "lawyer". Research in the lawyer directories of California, Texas, and Washington, under both her married and maiden names, yielded no results. The newspaper also noted that her LinkedIn profile mentions a Juris Doctor, a degree that does not qualify as a license to practice.
The text dwells on the distinction between "lawyer" and "attorney" that the spokesperson tried to make. Hannity recalled that she said she had consulted with people who assured her she could call herself a "lawyer" but not an "attorney", which she confirmed. Faced with a list of 15 publications where she presented herself as an "attorney", she responded that they were just "retweets" and that she "did not endorse the title". The Jerusalem Post finally noted that she worked from 2011 to 2013 as a collaborator on the international team of the Chinese firm Zhong Lun, without ever having practiced or been licensed in the United States.
Arutz Sheva, for its part, limited itself to a brief from its North American office: "Trump fires White House press secretary Katie Zacharia after just one week". The media outlet wrote that the president had dismissed the spokesperson "after a difficult start, questions about her legal credentials, and just one week in office". It used the verb "fire", without reporting Donald Trump's denial, which claims he did not fire her.
Neither of the two articles is interested in the American-Ukrainian dimension of the first press point or in Beijing's reaction. The prism retained is that of the accuracy of the qualifications that the spokesperson attributed to herself, with the interrogation by a Fox News host, a channel close to the president, as the decisive moment.
