It doesn’t matter that the United States has officially condemned ISIS. The liberal media still hesitate to call ISIS’ atrocities what they are: genocide.
During Monday’s morning news shows, the broadcast networks reported on the fight by U.S.-backed Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim the city of Mosul from ISIS. While CBS and NBC noted evidence of Christian persecution in the rescued towns nearby, not once did they use the word “genocide.” ABC didn't even mention Christianity in its report.
Beginning with This Morning, CBS correspondent Holly Williams reported from Iraq Oct. 24 after visiting Hamdaniyah, a town in close proximity to Mosul.
“Hamdaniyah used to be a Christian town of 50,000 people, but after two years under ISIS, it's shattered and deserted,” she said.
Williams highlighted ISIS’ destruction of the Christian town.
“Its crosses torn down by the extremists, this crucifix defaced,” she continued. When she added that “local Christian militia men have arrived to help secure the town,” the camera focused on a group of soldiers making the sign of the cross together.
Even then, Williams didn’t refer to or say the word “genocide.”
During Today, NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel also pointed to ISIS’ attack on Christians.
“With every new village that’s been liberated from ISIS, there are more signs of the group’s radical intolerance,” he said, “in particular, its persecution of Christians who’ve lived in this part of Iraq since the earliest days of the faith.”
For his report, Engel followed a priest and his wife who “returned to see what was left of their beloved church” after they were “forced out of their homes by ISIS” more than 2 years ago.
“The church is still standing but desecrated. The cross burnt and shot, religious art smashed,” Engel relayed. Even now, while the “Iraqi troops celebrate the return of the Christians,” Engel reported that “it’s too dangerous for the priest to stay.”
Like Williams, Engel never used the word “genocide” to describe ISIS’ treatment of Christians.
But CBS and NBC still beat ABC’s coverage. For Good Morning America, chief global affairs anchor Martha Raddatz reported “30,000 Iraqi forces taking part in this attack on Mosul, backed up by thousands of Americans” on Monday. But Raddatz never mentioned the Christian persecution, never mind say the word “genocide.”
The networks have no excuse to avoid the term “genocide.” Earlier this year, on March 17, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that, “in my judgment, Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.” Daesh stands for “al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham” or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS).
In August, the MRC found that, in the past two-and-half years, the broadcast network evening news shows (ABC, NBC, CBS) reported on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia only 60 times. And of those 60 reports just six used the word “genocide.”
NBC broke its silence on genocide in September temporarily – but only after some “star power” intervened. Amal Clooney, married to actor George Clooney, championed the cause against the atrocities committed by ISIS in an exclusive with the network.
