Malzberg Calls 60 Minutes Pelley a 'Pathetic Fool' for GZ Mosque Puff Piece

Conservative radio host Steve Malzberg on Monday called Steve Pelley a louse for his puff piece about the Ground Zero mosque aired on CBS's "60 Minutes."

As NewsBusters previously reported, "In a Sunday 60 Minutes story that gave a glowing portrayal of the real estate developer and imam behind the Ground Zero mosque, CBS anchor Scott Pelley also used the opportunity to smear opponents of the project."

"Scott Pelley has just earned the Bob Schieffer 'I Don't Give a Rat's About Anything' Journalism Award," scolded Malzberg on his WOR radio program the following day.

"Do you hear this louse?" he asked. "Take your journalism degree, Scott, and put it at the bottom of your dog the next time he crouches down because that's what your journalism degree is worth you pathetic fool" (audio follows with partial transcript and commentary):

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS: Who are you?

SHARIF EL-GAMAL: I`m-- I`m an American, I`m a New Yorker, born in Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, to a Polish Catholic mother, to an Egyptian father.

SCOTT PELLEY: Make sure I have this straight. You are a Muslim, who married a Christian girl. Your mother is Catholic. And you joined the Jewish Community Center on the West Side of Manhattan?

SHARIF EL-GAMAL: I did. That`s New York, though. That`s New York.

PELLEY: You`ve been called a jihadi, a friend of terrorists, a man who can`t be trusted. So who are you?

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: I`m a man of peace, Scott.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

STEVE MALZBERG, HOST: Ladies and gentlemen, Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes," I guess he went to journalism school. And this is the best question he has for Sharif El-Gamal, a man who according to published reports has been in many run-ins with the law, owns according to published reports the site at Ground Zero, owes back taxes. Of course we know the many things the Iman has said, U.S. was an accessory. As a matter of fact he said that on "60 Minutes" in the past, U.S. was an accessory to 9/11. He refuses to call Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists. He's been called a slumlord. He's in trouble in Jersey, he had to go to court, he has to prove his funds he got from the state of Jersey to fix up crumbling buildings that he owns. I mean, the list goes on and on. How did Gamal buy the property for $4.8 million when another investor offered $18 million? But the best Scott Pelley from CBS "60 Minutes" can come up with is, "Who are you?" And then he lets them ramble. [...]

Scott Pelley has just earned the Bob Schieffer "I Don't Give a Rat's About Anything" Journalism Award. "Who are you?" That's his question to two men who have a laundry list of issues. And he brought up none of them. None of them. You know who he went after? He went after Pamela Geller. Pam Geller, our friend who has been instrumental - of AtlasShrugs.com - who has been instrumental in trying to stop this mosque. He painted her as a liar, as a hatemonger, because Pelley in his piece said, "This mosque isn't at Ground Zero. It's not at Ground Zero. We had to walk two blocks and it took us two minutes." So then he goes to Geller, Geller is the only one he asks questions to. Here's cut six:

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE):

PELLEY: How did this become your business?

PAMELA GELLER: Well, it-- it`s not my business, it`s America`s business.

PELLEY (voiceover): Pamela Geller is a key figure in all of these. She is the Islamic center`s most ardent opponent. Geller is a former New York media executive who writes a politically far right blog that mixes news, opinion, and conspiracy theories.

GELLER: We live in a multicultural society, a pluristic (sic) society, with all different kinds of people. And how do we do that? We do that by getting along. And you don`t build a fifteen-story mega mosque at Ground Zero, and-- and talk and say that it`s healing, and say that it`s outreach. Don`t spit in my face and tell me it`s raining.

(END AUDIOTAPE):

MALZBERG: Oh, Scott Pelley didn't like that. You ready for cut seven?

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

PELLEY (voiceover): Geller kept writing, calling the project an act of jihad, a "grotesque flag of conquest on Ground Zero."

To what degree are you obliged to tell the truth in your blog--

GELLER (overlapping): That`s all I do is tell the truth.

PELLEY: --to be accurate in your blog?

GELLER (overlapping): Okay, Scott--

PELLEY: You moved the mosque to Ground Zero. It`s not going to be there. It was never intended to be there.

GELLER (overlapping): That building is Ground Zero.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

MALZBERG: Do you hear this louse, Scott Pelley? Do you hear him? "You, to what extent do you have a responsibility to tell the truth? You moved the mosque to Ground Zero." Meanwhile this creep on "60 Minutes" never brought up a single quote from the Imam, never brought up the refusal of the Imam to call a terrorist group a terrorist group, never brought up saying that we were an accessory, never brought up him saying Osama bin Laden was made in the USA, never brought up the Imam saying that we were a Sharia compliant country or Sharia ready country, never brought up any of the troubles with the law that Sharif El-Gamal has had. And he says to, to, to Pamela Geller about, he talks to her about her responsibility? To tell the truth?

Take your journalism degree, Scott, and put it at the bottom of your dog the next time he crouches down ("Who are you?") because that's what your journalism degree is worth you pathetic fool. You've exposed yourself for who you are.

The PR campaign for the mosque continues on CBS.

Ouch! That's going to leave a scar!