On the one hand, NBC Nightly News was the only evening network newscast to acknowledge that there were dueling protests on occasion of the first anniversary of Hamas’ barbaric Black Sabbath attack against Israel. On the other, the network both-sidesed the protests.
Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, October 7th, 2024 (click "expand" to view transcript):
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
10/7/24
7:12 PM
LESTER HOLT: The (10/7) anniversary met with remembrance and rage in the U.S., with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators marking the attack and the deadly war it sparked in Gaza. Stephanie Gosk has our report.
STEPHANIE GOSK: Demonstrations growing tonight on the anniversary of the October 7th attacks, fueling familiar tensions across the country, especially at Columbia University.
How do you feel with this demonstration going on here on campus today?
STUDENT: I feel unsafe as a Jew. We are a group of people just supporting and mourning the loss of lives taken. That's all we want to do, is to mourn.
GOSK: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, many with faces covered, calling for an end to the war.
PROTESTER: People are dying. We're doing nothing about it.
GOSK: Outside the gates, pro-Israel demonstrators waved flags and prayed for the hostages amid heightened security. First-year grad student Sara Kashani says she considered not studying at Columbia.
SARA KASHANI: It's hard, as a proud Jew and a proud Zionist, to commit to a school that doesn't value you as a person.
GOSK: While for many today was a day of remembrance, recognized by President Biden with a candle lighting ceremony in The White House, nationwide, universities have been bracing for protests. At USC, and the University of Maryland.
STUDENT: On this day in particular it's very difficult for the jewish community.
STUDENT: This is our chance to make sure that our campus community is actually aware of what's happening in Palestine.
GOSK: In the last year, schools have struggled balancing freedom of speech and safety on campus. University presidents testified on Capitol Hill.
MICHAEL SCHILL: I'll be the first to admit our existing rules and policies are falling short.
GOSK: The clashes at colleges reflecting growing antisemitism and Islamophobia in the country. More than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the last year. And a 69% increase in complaints about islamophobia. Tonight there are dueling protests in New York including here in Times Square. There’s a large police presence and they’ve set up barricades to prevent confrontation. Lester.
HOLT: All right. Stephanie Gosk tonight, thank you.
With a summer behind us, viewers are supposed to forget the anti-semitic violence and eliminationist rhetoric that emanated from these protests. Viewers are also expected to forget that these protests often descended into physical violence.
NBC, which once praised the resolve of anti-semitic protesters at Columbia, is back at it again. Per Gosk’s reporting, “pro-Palestinian protesters” simply call for an end to the war, versus a literal end to Israel itself.
The biggest tell in the report is the lumping in of the 10,000 reported anti-semitic incidents with the 69% increase in complaints about Islamophobia. What does this even mean? What goes into these actual complaints? We don’t even know. Viewers are just supposed to accept these data at face value.
On the day that the world remembered the barbarism of Hamas’s October 7th pogrom, NBC chose to provide moral equivalence to those who call for the elimination of Israel. Decency compels us to say “Never Again”. Apparently, NBC feels compelled to say, “So What?”
