On Monday, Brian Stelter traveled to The ReidOut on MSNBC to declare “it is not biased or partisan to tug on the side of truth,” as he argued the media needs to be willing to be more active in its denunciations of Donald Trump, but what about host Joy Reid? Because on Friday, Reid spread fake news in order to fawn over South Africa’s preposterous claim at the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.
During an interview with executive director of the misnamed Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, Reid claimed “This is the deadliest conflict in modern history, more dead than even in places like Aleppo.”
This is why writers are required to use citations. According to Hamas’s fake numbers—fake because they do not distinguish civilian from combatant— 23,469 Gazans have been killed since the start of the war.
The United Nations, which loves Israel about as much as Joy Reid loves Donald Trump and cites Hamas’s numbers, lists five Syrian cities that experienced more civilian deaths than that during the civil war in that country than all of Gaza:
- Rural Damascus: 61,800
- Allepo: 51,563
- Deir ez-Zor: 38,041
- Idlib: 36,536
- Homs: 29,983
With the exception of Damascus, all of those cities have lower populations than Gaza and in the case of the latter three, by a quite significant margin. Other estimates put the Aleppo figures closer to 30,000, but that is still more in one city than Hamas's propaganda says have been killed in all of Gaza.
Reid, however, continued, “What is the significance of it being South Africa? Because there is a long history of the former government during Apartheid and the Israeli government back in those days, but what is the significance of it being South Africa, and, for instance, not an Arab country that's bringing this case?”
South Africa may not be Arab, but it is still run by ideological hustlers trying to live off the reputation of their predecessors from over 30 years ago. To pretend it’s just some dispassionate observer of events driven by facts is also fake news.
However, The ReidOut is where facts go to die, as Hassan replied “Well, I think it's, you know, it's important and it's a positive development that we see a country like South Africa being willing to take this matter up at the International Court of Justice. It's not the first time we have seen principled action from African states on atrocity crimes and crimes of such scale.”
Hassan then mentioned The Gambia’s lawsuit against Myanmar as if that mattered before returning to South Africa, “And so I think that it is a development that this comes and I think because it's South Africa, it isn't an Arab country, indeed and it just shows you that when we are dealing with atrocity crimes when we're dealing with crimes, as serious as genocide that it consumes all countries.”
South Africa won’t pursue genocide claims against their Russian and Chinese friends, ideological affinity for the Palestinians won’t allow it to bring them against Iran, but they will bring them in order to bail out Hamas. That, unlike Joy Reid, is not fake news.
Here is a transcript for the January 11 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
1/11/2024
7:58 PM ET
JOY REID: This is the deadliest conflict in modern history, more dead than even in places like Aleppo. What is the significance of it being South Africa? Because there is a long history of the former government during Apartheid and the Israeli government back in those days, but what is the significance of it being South Africa, and, for instance, not an Arab country that's bringing this case?
TIRANA HASSAN: Well, I think it's, you know, it's important and it's a positive development that we see a country like South Africa being willing to take this matter up at the International Court of Justice. It's not the first time we have seen principled action from African states on atrocity crimes and crimes of such scale.
Actually, it was a few years ago that we saw Gambia, the small landlocked country of West Africa, bring forward a case of genocide in Myanmar in relation to the persecution and attacks on the Rohingya population. So, I think that there is precedent for a country with strong judicial and constitutional foundations to be able to elevate matters of international concern to international courts.
And so I think that it is a development that this comes and I think because it's South Africa, it isn't an Arab country, indeed and it just shows you that when we are dealing with atrocity crimes--
REID: Yeah
HASSAN: --when we're dealing with crimes, as serious as genocide--
REID: Yeah.
HASSAN: -- that it consumes all countries.
