One of the worst people you know just made a great point. During the Monday night handoff between the NewsNation eponymous shows of Chris Cuomo and Dan Abrams, the duo ripped into the liberal media outlets that breathlessly parroted casualty numbers provided by Hamas when reporting on the blast at a Gaza hospital. Cuomo added that he had never seen a terrorist organization get the kind of good PR the media has been gifting them.
“The New York Times says they made a mistake in relying on Hamas’s reports about the bombing of the hospital. And it’s going to keep happening,” Cuomo warned. He broke down the perverse incentive structure as such: “As long as the reporting reflects the interests of what they see in the angry, you're going to have agendas before you’re going to have information. It’ll continue.”
Abrams agreed and had the modest suggestion that with all the disinformation coming out of Gaza, media organizations had an obligation to “take on a greater responsibility to get this stuff right.” He also took a swing at The New York Times for their non-apology for spreading Hamas propaganda:
And you know, they're not even really apologizing. They're just saying, “Well, you know, in the early days we probably should have been a little more careful.” I mean, I'm going to talk about this later in the show with Bill Carter, who was at The New York Times as the media reporter for a long time. But, you know, they're basically still saying, “Well, you know, it's two-sided. It’s all two-sided about the hospital. We don't know, you know. It's still unclear. They say this and they say that.”
“And I'm concerned about a lot of these mainstream media entities not taking the leadership role that they need to in getting the stuff right,” he lamented.
Cuomo directly condemned the media writ large for how they’ve been holding Hamas’s hand in recent weeks. “I've never seen a terror organization get the kind of deference that Hamas is getting right now,” he said.
He put it in terms Americans could better understand by mirroring Hamas with the Taliban: “I've never reported on the, ‘Well, the Taliban says that –’Never. And they were in control of a region and they’re as much, you know, installed as a power base as Hamas is.”
He also couldn’t wrap his mind around how certain people in the media were trying to slice up Hamas to suggest part of the organization was okay. “I can't even believe that we say ‘the armed wing of Hamas.’ As opposed to what wing?!” he chided.
Earlier in the show, Cuomo also took a strong stance against the far-left students who were rallying and marching in support of Hamas. Again putting it in terms more applicable to Americans, he proposed that if college kids were "mouthing off" after 9/11 the way they were with Israel, they would have received a literal beat down.
Chris Cuomo says if college kids were "mouthing off" after 9/11 the way they are with Israel, they would have gotten a literal beat down.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 24, 2023
"And if you think the country would have tolerated support for al Qaeda's actions as we're hearing now, it would have been bedlam." pic.twitter.com/sV771MRYry
"And if you think the country would have tolerated support for al Qaeda's actions as we're hearing now, it would have been bedlam,” he said.
And in something of a surprise point, Cuomo had concerns about the southern border and the possibility that terrorists could be getting through. He couched his argument in history, saying, “God forbid. Just like after the Second Intifada, which was in 2000, a year later - not even - we got hit. Terror metastasizes, spreads.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
NewsNation’s Cuomo
October 23, 2023
8:59:57 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: The New York Times says they made a mistake in relying on Hamas’s reports about the bombing of the hospital. And it’s going to keep happening. Not with The New York Times, but in general. Why? Look at your social media. As long as the reporting reflects the interests of what they see in the angry, you're going to have agendas before you’re going to have information. It’ll continue. Dan Abrams right now.
DAN ABRAMS: Very well said Chris. And this actually elevates the obligation of the mainstream media entities. Right? Because there's so much information out there. There's going to be so much disinformation out there, that places like The New York Times, in my view, take on a greater responsibility to get this stuff right.
And you know, they're not even really apologizing. They're just saying, “Well, you know, in the early days we probably should have been a little more careful.” I mean, I'm going to talk about this later in the show with Bill Carter, who was at The New York Times as the media reporter for a long time. But, you know, they're basically still saying, “Well, you know, it's two-sided. It’s all two-sided about the hospital. We don't know, you know. It's still unclear. They say this and they say that.”
And I'm concerned about a lot of these mainstream media entities not taking the leadership role that they need to in getting the stuff right.
CUOMO: I've never seen a terror organization get the kind of deference that Hamas is getting right now.
ABRAMS: Yup.
CUOMO: I've never – I've never reported on the, “Well, the Taliban says that—” Never. And they were in control of a region and they’re as much, you know, installed as a power base as Hamas is. I can't even believe that we say “the armed wing of Hamas.” As opposed to what wing?!
ABRAMS: Right.
CUOMO: And you know, I hear what's happening on the college campuses here. I get it. But if you feel that then go live on a Native American reservation and help them because they're dealing with suffering also. Well, Palestine is getting carpet-bombed. I know they're getting carpet bomb. But what would you what would America do? After 9/11, what did we do?
Weren’t in an existential threat. We weren’t surrounded on all sides. Imagine if the college campuses had gone off like they did now, what would have happened on those campuses? It's a really interesting time, Dan. I just don't get the reason of it.
ABRAMS: Well, we're going to have a – my guess is a little debate coming up on the show. Chris, good to see you.
(…)
