MSNBC is paying a serious price for leading the field in dishonest journalism that draws a false equivalence between the terrorist brutalities of Hamas and the legitimate self-defense of Israel.
The network’s lost 33% of its primetime viewers since Hamas struck Israel even as Fox — which accurately reports on the situation — has seen a massive 42% jump in total viewership.
It’s not hard to see why.
Americans know what terrorism looks like: the rape and murder of civilians, including toddlers.
The desperate pretenses of MSNBC’s hosts, like Hamas fan Andrea Mitchell, can’t convince any sane person otherwise.
It was Mitchell, remember, who had the insane gall to suggest Hamas and Israel really aren’t so different to an Israeli mother whose children the terror squads are holding hostage.
The woman responded with justified outrage that, no, there is no symmetry between Hamas and Israel.
One is the region’s strongest democracy and our closest local ally; the other is a cadre of genocidal Islamists working to further Iran’s ambitions.
The network’s pulled other similar moves, like lumping together the death tolls from Gaza and Israel in an onscreen graphic.
Except that those Gaza tolls are driven by a Hamas policy of siting military personnel and materiel in mosques and hospitals, and encouraging civilians to stay in places where Israel has notified it will be bombarding.
And bringing on the trio of Ayman Mohyeldin, Mehdi Hasan and Ali Velshi to say the Hamas assault was the result of “failed policies” by Israel and the US.
Except, as NewsNation’s Dan Abram’s put it, no failed policy could “somehow justify or even explain the slaughter, rapes, and kidnapping of innocent civilians.”
MSNBC also participates in a disturbing trend of media euphemism around Hamas, calling the group’s killers “militants” and “fighters.”
In that it’s joined by the BBC, which claims it won’t use the word “terrorist” because doing so means taking a side.
Precisely: for civilization and against its enemies.
Good to know where the BBC stands.
The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, the AP, CBS: For these outfits, Hamas murderers are “militants” or “fighters.”
The Gray Lady herself plays this game, generally favoring “militants” — and in one now-infamous case, getting it right by using “terrorists”, flipping that to “gunmen” and then, after being called out on social media, flopping back to “terrorists.”
The ratings punishment slamming MSNBC shows that this flood of propaganda doesn’t work.
Hamas is the aggressor here, and its aggression stands outside the compass of every norm.
The real question is when the legacy media will admit it.
