INVESTIGATIONS

One way you know that most journalists are Democrats is their energetic work presenting about 37 ways the Republican Party may collapse into rubble in the near future, versus their cautious beating around bushes about problems the Democratic Party may have — but maybe they’ll all vanish.

The Monday political roundtable on the PBS NewsHour took a few minutes to address how Biden may have a problem since young “progressives” in his party hate Israel as a deplorable pack of oppressive white supremacists. Anchor Geoff Bennett cited a Washington Post headline: “Biden’s resistance to ceasefire could alienate youth voters in 2024.”

The Post account noted an NBC News poll found that 70 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, and he’s struggling with Muslims, “many of whom feel he has shown a lack of sympathy for Palestinian civilians.” The Democrats loved to use “Islamophobia” against Donald Trump, and now they’re getting painted into a corner as the Israel-loving Islamophobes.

It’s almost comical to watch PBS pundits try to explain these problems in the most milquetoast fashion. Political analyst Amy Walter claimed “for many older voters, this is a geopolitical issue, and for younger voters, this is a human rights issue.” Somehow, Israel is presented as an opponent of “human rights,” and the Hamas terrorists, who indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians, are the sympathetic victims.

Walter explained that younger voters use a lens “in which race and privilege and access is the main focus, versus one that is really looking at this as what’s the stability in the region, who’s at fault, what does it mean for the rest of the world.” Israel represents white privilege, and the Palestinians are apparently like blacks in segregated America. A ceasefire might be a temporary boost for Biden, but it’s “not changing the nature of the conversation about what it means to be Palestinian.”

Walter was trying to sound academic and face no questioning about how “being Palestinian” somehow justifies October 7 or the years of lobbing missiles from Gaza on Israel’s civilians. Anchorman Bennett wasn’t questioning the Rashida Tlaib position spreading on the radical left. You would never call this view “pro-Hamas” on PBS, but it’s staunchly opposing the Israelis as the villains in this war.

Then PBS turned to NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who is routinely asked to reflect and re-state the White House position. She’s literally a spokesperson for Biden. Bennett asked, “Tam, how does the White House see it?…President Biden, the White House, I’m told, feels that he doesn’t always get the credit for doing the work, because he doesn’t do the work in a way that’s properly politically theatrical.”

PBS worried about Biden not receiving “credit” on the war in Israel, like this dreadful war doesn’t make him look like a geopolitical boob. No, the problem is framed as Biden isn’t “properly theatrical,” like Barack Obama. That would require engaging with the press, which the White House clearly finds terrifying.

Call her Tamara Jean-Pierre Keith as she explained Biden “very much does not make a public show of things until after it’s done. And then he tries to claim credit, like with all of his economic accomplishments. And then he can’t get the credit. And it’s already baked in. And that’s just the story of Joe Biden.”

Keith can state with a straight face that Biden has “economic accomplishments.” PBS would never describe Republicans as having any “economic accomplishments,” but Biden’s Jimmy Carter rerun isn’t getting enough credit. Why must conservative taxpayers involuntarily fund this Democrat echo chamber?

On PBS @NewsHour, they asked NPR’s Tamara Keith why Biden doesn’t get enough credit. Biden “very much does not make a public show of things until after it’s done. And then he tries to claim credit, like with all of his economic accomplishments. And then he can’t get the credit.” pic.twitter.com/RcE2pbWO7j
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) November 29, 2023

Who had Parents magazine on their bingo card as running one of the most one-sided stories on the Israel-Hamas war? The magazine of child-raising tips, online-only since 2022, has grown-up to be a home of ignorant rants like a smear against Moms for Liberty, “How ‘Klanned Karenhood’ Is Infiltrating Schools.”

Contributor Syeda Khaula Saad didn’t try to disguise her slant in “How To Talk to Kids About Islamophobia.” The sub-head served as a sample of Hamas-denial: “As attacks on Palestine intensify, anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence have increased worldwide. Here’s some guidance on how to explain Islamophobia to children.” It’s a clumsy piece of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli propaganda under the guise of one of those sensitive “how to talk to your children” pieces.

Saad led with dubious statistics from one of the most notorious Islamic pressure groups, the Hamas-linked CAIR. 

The recent news cycle covering the conflict between Israel and Palestine has spiked Islamophobic sentiments within the US The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the “largest grassroots Islamic civil liberties organization” in the country, has reported an appalling 245% increase in reported anti-Muslim instances since then. In fact the rampant increase in Islamophobic incidents, including the highly-publicized stabbing of 6-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea Al Fayoume, resulted in President Joe Biden announcing the first US National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia on November 1, 2023.

Saad offensively downplayed Hamas into a “militant group” that merely “took hostages,” mentioning the Palestinian terrorist group exactly once, while providing a bogus potted history of the region that put all the blame on Israel and the “Nakba” of 1948, ignoring the five-nation Arab invasion that started the 75-year-old conflict, which began the day Israel declaring independence on May 14, 1948.

After the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel and took hostages, Israel responded by launching airstrikes in Gaza, resulting in mass civilian casualties, including more than 4,000 children since early October. These events are the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been ongoing for more than 75 years, marking decades of violence and bloodshed since the 1948 “Nakba,” or mass displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes to create Israel. Understanding the history of this conflict and these particular anti-Palestinian prejudices is critical to understanding the current spike in Islamophobic rhetoric and attacks.

Saad skipped right over the terrorist attacks of 2001 to get to the true victims: Muslims in America. Not even comedian Amy Schumer was spared in her ridiculously thin and tiny roundup of Islamophobia from celebrities.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Islamophobia around the U.S. increased at an alarming rate. Even 20 years later, Muslims in America face instances of anti-Muslim violence every day. But it isn’t just the post-9/11 world that spurs these discriminatory feelings. Former President Donald J. Trump’s entire 2016 election campaign heavily invoked anti-Muslim sentiments.

Since October 7, plenty of anti-Muslim hate and propaganda has been spread not only by mainstream media but by celebrities as well. Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp liked an Islamophobic video mocking Muslims and pushing dangerous anti-Muslim stereotypes. Amy Schumer posted a satirical comic where a pro-Palestine protest goer is holding up a sign that reads “Stab Jews for Allah.” In these instances, like many others, stereotypes of Muslims being terrorists and barbarians are perpetuated.

Hamas is a terrorist group, of course, something Saad refused to admit.

The author found a real radical, Farida Mallah of Teaching While Muslim, who told the readers of (yes, again) Parents magazine not to trust the media or the government.

“They have a responsibility to do the research before they read or address propaganda perpetuated by the media and the government,” Mallah says of non-Muslim parents. “And they need to build bridges with our Muslim community members in order for them to understand how [Islamophobia] directly affects us.”