On Monday, the major broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC predictably used their flagship morning newscasts to lead with the anti-Semitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado on a gathering of Jews and supporters calling on Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken on October 7, 2023.
However, other than appropriately leading with the attack, the networks collectively failed to cover the basic facts, refused to denounce the Palestinian-inspired hate, and watered down the role of anti-Semitism. In some cases, they even speculated it was still too early to say if anti-Semitism were at play.
Worse yet, two callously also invoked a dubious claim from late last week that Israelis fired on Gazans at an aid site.
ABC’s Good Morning America started with this tease from co-host George Stephanopoulos:
Moments later, he formally kicked off the coverage by tossing to Denver-based correspondent Mola Lenghi for more on the “attack on a gathering of Jewish community members in Boulder, Colorado…calling for the release of the hostages held by Hamas” and victimized by an “attacker” who “used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device.”
Lenghi left out some important details, such as the words “anti-Semitism,” “anti-Semitic,” “Hamas,” and the suspect being here “illegally”:
Instead, he said the “horrifying scene” of “[p]eople being set on fire” was allegedly caused by “a suspect armed with what officials say was makeshift flame thrower who allegedly threw a device into the crowd” and yelled ‘free Palestine.’”
“The FBI investigating what they’re calling a targeted attack on a group of peaceful demonstrators who were raising awareness on the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza,” he added, later saying one of the injured is a Holocaust survivor.
A slew of soundbites later and more information about the preliminary charges, ABC turned to chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas, who expressed horror at the rise in anti-Semitic attacks, but offered no reason for why so many people want to kill Jews:
If you’re unable to call out the evil in Hamas and its unholy alliance of Islamists and far-left progressivism, you’re part of the problem.
Only in the second hour did Lenghi tack onto the end of his report that “we’re learning that the suspect was in the United States illegally, according to an official at the Department of Homeland Security.”
ABC also gave support to Hamas – the very terrorist group inspiring these anti-Semitic terror attacks – with a sympathetic piece implying Israeli gunfire on innocent Palestinians:
Chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannell took the word of the anti-Israel Doctors Without Border and the United Nations, pinned the lack of breakthrough on a new ceasefire and hostage deal on Israel, saying “those hopes of a breakthrough…fading, as Israel has started expanding its grounds operations in Gaza.”
CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King said in a tease the network was following “a suspected terror attack on a demonstration for Israeli hostages…when a man attacks a group of peaceful demonstrators using what’s described as a makeshift flamethrower.”
Like ABC, the report from CBS correspondent Jason Allen left much to be desired:
“Yelling anti-Israel expressions”? Jeez Louise, guys.
Notice too how Allen vaguely alluded to the terrorist as an illegal alien: “U.S. officials confirm to CBS News the suspect, Soliman, is an Egyptian national who arrived at LAX in 2022 and overstayed his non-immigrant Visa.”
Without any segments in between (like ABC did), the show immediately pivoted to the dubious claims about the Gaza aid site. Leave it to CBS correspondent Imtiaz Tyab to do Hamas’s propaganda dirty work (click “expand”):
NATE BURLESON: Inside Gaza officials say more than 50 were killed yesterday while trying to collect food from a humanitarian aid say gunfire could be heard nearby and CBS News cameras were at the hospital when the gunshot victims arrived. The Israeli group that runs the site claims it was unaware of the violence. Imtiaz Tyab reports.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Israel-Hamas War; Chaos at Gaza Aid Distribution Center; At Least 21 Dead When Gunfire Erupts Near Aid Center]
TYAB: CBS News cameras were there when body after body arrived at Gaza’s Nasser hospital. Doctors and nurses have called this a mass casualty event. Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces opened fire near a controversial aid distribution points in the southern city of Rafah. Dozens were killed, and over 200 wounded, most suffering from gunshot injuries, according to health officials —
VICTORIA ROSE: Gunshot wounds —
TYAB: — including British doctor Victoria Rose.
ROSE: It’s very difficult to think that they were just looking for food and now they’re injured and are on our operating tables. It’s a real crisis for us because we haven’t had any medical aid since the second of March, and we are really on our knees.
TYAB: This early morning cellphone video appears to show the moment gunfire first erupted. Not far is an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. GHF, backed by the U.S. and Israel, and did not exist a few months ago, is staffed with armed American contractors. Both GHF and the Israeli military have denied any shooting took place. But since the group started distributing food a week ago, there have been repeated scenes of violence near its delivery sites. And yet, another incident just this morning. At least five people were killed near a GHF distribution in Rafah according to health officials. [CHILDREN CRYING] Among the victims was 10-year-old Hassam Walkei’s [sp?] father. “My dad went to get us food, but he was shot and died.” Now, we were able to make contact over the phone with a GHF spokesperson based in Washington and he told us there were no incidents of gunfire within sight of or in the vicinity of the group’s aid distribution hubs despite video evidence and eyewitness testimony to the contrary, and insisted operations were going smoothly.
“You see those children weep, that's tough to see. Thank you, Imtiaz, reporting from Tel Aviv. It’s awful,” King sympathetically replied.
NBC’s Today did not mention the Gaza aid distribution controversy, but they were no less sinister. Co-host Savannah Guthrie’s tease was a good start.
Additionally, co-host Craig Melvin later set the table by saying “a man yielding a makeshift flamethrower attack[ed] members of a peaceful demonstration calling for the return of Israeli hostages…just days after that outside a Jewish museum outside Washington, D.C. where two U.S. Embassy workers were shot and killed” and a shooter there who said they “did it for Gaza” and “Palestine.”
Correspondent Morgan Chesky filed a story from Boulder on the “chilling act of violence” that missed the mark, omitting these facts listed below:
The second hour featured Chesky live on-camera and an unbelievable declaration that motive was still unclear:
To see the relevant transcripts from June 2, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
