National Public Radio’s coverage of the anti-Israel agitators who’ve taken over progressive college campuses while spouting violent rhetoric at Jewish students has been no better than its tax-funded partner PBS (both outlets reside under the taxpayer-supported auspices of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.)
NPR’s Friday coverage flattered the protesters, suggesting they were laser-focused on concrete demands that their respective colleges cease financing Israel, while ignoring their vocal support for Hamas terrorists, demonstrated by praising the October 7 massacre of Israelis and reciting eliminationist chants like “From the river to the sea.”
Friday’s Morning Edition program aired “Protests against the war in Gaza intensify at Columbia and other universities” without a single mention of the despicable rhetoric from the protests, nothing about the ongoing anti-Semitic ranting and toddler-like tactics when confronted by police, only enthusiasm for the alleged success of the protests. Here’s your tax dollars at work, producing bias by omission:
A MARTINEZ, co-host: It's been a week since Columbia University called in the police to clear an encampment of anti-war protesters on a campus lawn. And what a week it's been.
LEILA FADEL, co-host: More than a hundred students were arrested that day. And since then, the student demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza have only intensified. They spread to universities across the country and led to hundreds more arrests.
Adrian Florido reported from New York: "For days, protest leaders and university officials have been in negotiations over the encampment's future. The university wants it gone, but the hundreds of students in the camp say they're staying put until their demands are met."
Martinez took the protesters seriously: Now, you mentioned that the students are refusing to clear the encampment until their demands are met. What are those demands?
Florido sounded empathetic: The big one is divestment. They want Columbia to sell off the stock it owns in companies that do business in Israel and that, the protesters say, are enabling Israel's war in Gaza and its operations in the West Bank." He featured a soundbite from grad student and organizer Ray Guerrero, "who says that if Columbia pulls its money from these companies, other institutions might follow. And that could bring pressure to bear on the Israeli government.…."
Martinez asked how the protests would affect graduation ceremonies.
ADRIAN FLORIDO: Well, here at Columbia, the encampment is smack in the center of where the school holds its main graduation ceremony. And in fact, all around the encampment, workers are already basically putting up the stages and scaffolding for that event. It's part of why protesters suspect they're about to be removed by force. At USC, the main graduation ceremony has been canceled. And that could happen at other schools because these students showing up to protest say they're not going anywhere.
No concern was voiced over the hate chanters ruining a milestone event for those students (suckers) who attend college for the education – cruelly, many of whom also missed out on high school graduation in 2020 because of COVID restrictions. That's one human-interest angle NPR chose to ignore.
Note: This story was also included on “Up First.” a popular NPR podcast delivering brief daily highlights of NPR’s coverage, and introduced there in the most supportive fashion imaginable: “As protests and arrests continue at college campuses across the U.S., are the students calling for divestment in Israel getting closer to their demands?”
