Wednesday’s CBS Evening News featured an abhorrent segment trying to put anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on the same plane as equally disturbing and prevalent after Hamas’s October 7 mass terror attacks on innocents in Israel that left over 1,400 dead and over 200 taken hostage.
After years of arguing and implying there isn’t two sides in politics to smear the GOP, the liberal media have rediscovered both sides-ism so as not to offend supporters of terrorism who want to carry out a second Holocaust. This false equivalency bears no semblance to the facts as the most recent FBI crime statistics showed 51.4 percent of all religious-based hate crimes were committed against Jews. The percentage of attacks on Muslims? Only 9.6 percent.
Anchor Norah O’Donnell gave them equal weight in an opening tease: “Plus, anti-Semitic incidents of nearly 400 percent in the U.S. And anti-Muslim incidents on the rise since Israel-Hamas war began.”
The tease also had this vague statement from former Obama hack Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in which he likely was referring to the need to rally behind the Jewish people, but CBS didn’t frame it that way: “In this moment, the best way to respond is to stand together united.”
Following the newscast’s latest dosage of Hamas propaganda (including the treatment of Hamas’s death counts as gospel) and a puff piece on a far-left Northwestern professor’s mother trapped in Gaza, O’Donnell introduced the segment with bothsidesism:
The war in the Middle East is fanning the flames of hate here in the U.S. Today, the Anti-Defamation League said anti-Semitic incidents have spiked by about 400 percent in recent weeks. Threats against Muslims and Arabs are also on the rise.
Even the chyron was vague: “New Details; Hate Incidents Rise Amid Israel-Hamas Fighting.”
Chief national affairs and justice correspondent Jeff Pegues began with a simply chant of “justice” from a pro-Hamas rally in the U.S. with another from later in the piece being merely “free, free Palestine.” It was as if he suggested those demonstrations were peaceful (even though they’re anything but in terms of rhetoric, like this one in Washington state).
Pegues first talked about anti-Semitic threats, citing the ADL as “report[ing] at least 312 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., including harassment, vandalism, and assault in the nearly three weeks since the Israel-Hamas war began” for an increase “from 64 during the same time last year.”
Following a short Greenblatt soundbite, it was time to flip the script to Muslims and spotlight the dangerously radical Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR):
PEGUES: The Council on American Islamic Relations reports 774 anti-Muslim incidents since October 7, the highest in nearly eight years.
CAIR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AHMED REHAB: We feel doubly victimized. On one hand, they’re watching, again, thousands of civilians be killed. Then, they’re retaliated against with hate crimes and hate incidents.
Pegues, of course, left out the fact that CAIR has defended the mass slaughter of Jews because Israel’s engaged in “apartheid policies” against those who burned, murdered, raped, and tortured innocent men, women, and babies.
He continued to suggest Muslims were under assault in the country based on the horrific killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy that left his mother severely injured.
The CBS reporter wrapped with one final flip-flop back to anti-Semitism and ADL claims about a spike in social media posts about Jews and Israel.
Nowhere in Pegues’s report did he mention rhetoric calling for the extermination of Jews, the elimination of Israel, or recent actions on college campuses such as the projecting of anti-Jewish slogans onto a building at The George Washington University or Jewish students being locked inside a Cooper Union library as pro-Hamas terrorist students pounded on the doors.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 26, click “expand.”
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell
October 25, 2023
6:31 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Details; Surge in Anti-Jewish, Anti-Muslim Incidents]
O’DONNELL: Plus, anti-Semitic incidents of nearly 400 percent in the U.S. And anti-Muslim incidents on the rise since Israel-Hamas war began.
ADL’s JONATHAN GREENBLATT: In this moment, the best way to respond is to stand together united.
(.....)
6:45 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Rise in Hate Incidents]
O’DONNELL: The war in the Middle East is fanning the flames of hate here in the U.S. Today, the Anti-Defamation League said anti-Semitic incidents have spiked by about 400 percent in recent weeks. Threats against Muslims and Arabs are also on the rise. CBS’s Jeff Pegues has more on this troubling trend.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Details; Hate Incidents Rise Amid Israel-Hamas Fighting]
PRO-HAMAS MARCHERS: Justice!
JEFF PEGUES: As tensions are rising across the United States, so are incidents of anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League reports at least 312 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., including harassment, vandalism, and assault in the nearly three weeks since the Israel-Hamas war began. That’s up from 64 during the same time last year.
GREENBLATT: We’ve never seen the intensity and we’ve never seen the spread like we are seeing right now.
PEGUES: Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland warned about increased threats to Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities. The Council on American Islamic Relations reports 774 anti-Muslim incidents since October 7, the highest in nearly eight years.
CAIR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AHMED REHAB: We feel doubly victimized. On one hand, they’re watching, again, thousands of civilians be killed. Then, they’re retaliated against with hate crimes and hate incidents.
PRO-HAMAS PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine!
PEGUES: Just this week near Chicago, dueling rallies turned violent, and earlier this month, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in an alleged hate crime. His mother stabbed more than a dozen times, now home from the hospital and urging people to pray for peace. According to the ADL, violent rhetoric online from extremists on their social media platforms is fueling some of these hate incidents. The ADL is documented 1000 percent increase in the daily average of messages mentioning Jews and Israel. Norah?
O’DONNELL: Jeff Pegues, thank you.
