Comcast, MSNBC’s parent company, made an unusual intervention against the left-leaning network. Criticism of Israel is widespread while covering the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, according to the report.
MSNBC anchors Ayman Mohieruddin, Mehdi Hasan, and Ali Bersih, all Muslims, participated in the shocking Hamas cross-border invasion that massacred about 1,200 Israelis, including women and children. interviewed a guest who suggested it was the result of “failed policy” by the United States. And Israel.
Following MSNBC’s coverage that Saturday morning, Comcast president Michael Kavanaugh raised his concerns with Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, the division that includes MSNBC, NBC News and CNBC. . According to the New York Times.
Mr. Conde, who would come under fire months later for approving the hiring of former RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, reportedly told Mr. Kavanaugh that he shared those concerns.
The Times reported that the boss of NBCUniversal News then told his subordinates at MSNBC to focus on facts and less on opinion and commentary.
The Post has reached out to MSNBC and Comcast for comment.
A few weeks later, the Post reported that Mohieruddin, Hasan and Velshi were absent.
MSNBC denied claims that it silenced the trio and said the lineup change was “coincidental.”
Hasan, who frequently criticized Israel in his comments, left MSNBC in January, weeks after his show was cancelled.
MSNBC pushed aside partisan anti-Donald Trump coverage to become the second most-watched cable news channel, but lost a third of its prime-time audience in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.
Additionally, the total number of viewers for the four-day period from October 7th to October 10th decreased by 24% compared to the same period the previous week.
Two days after the Hamas attack, Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and ripped into the cable network’s coverage of Israel, saying: Ask: Who is writing your script? Hamas? ”
“I’m sad and trying to cope, but to be honest, I’m angry. I’m angry at the world for allowing the dehumanization of Israelis and for sanitizing the terrorist acts of Hamas,” Green said. Blatt told co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC.
Mr. Greenblatt was particularly incensed by the use of the word “militant” in reference to Hamas terrorists, who also took more than 200 people hostage.
It is unclear which MSNBC personality used the term.
The Post has reached out to ADL for comment.
Andrea Mitchell, a veteran Washington reporter and MSNBC host, also came under fire for her interview with an Israeli woman whose two young children were among the victims abducted by Hamas on October 9th. .
The woman became visibly irritated with Mitchell when asked to comment on Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza.
“I can’t sympathize with humans who are animals. They’re not actually humans, but they come into my house and destroy everything, steal everything, and take my children into their bedrooms. “They took me from there and took me to the Gaza Strip,” she said. said Mitchell.
