A violent, antisemitic protest in a major city would often be enough to warrant major coverage on the nation’s network evening newscasts. But that wasn’t the case with the disgusting protest outside of the Goldie falafel shop in Philadelphia, where the virulent mob accused the restaurant’s owners of genocide. Only NBC saw fit to cover this disgusting protest.
Here’s how Lester Holt and Stephanie Gosk opened up their coverage on the Philly protest. See? It wasn’t so hard, guys:
LESTER HOLT: Tonight, the White House is condemning a pro-Palestinian protest outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in Philadelphia as completely unjustifiable and antisemitic. Stephanie Gosk is there for us tonight.
STEPHANIE GOSK: At Goldie falafel shop in Philadelphia, a lunchtime rush. Little sign of the scene Sunday night, where police say 400 to 500 protesters gathered.
MOB: Goldie, Goldie, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide!
GOSK: They accused the restaurant co-owned by Israeli chef Michael Solomonov of supporting genocide in Gaza. Today the White House called the protest antisemitic. Pennsylvania's governor said it echoed 1930s Germany.
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO: The purposeful gathering of a mob outside of a restaurant simply because it is owned by a Jewish person, well, that's antisemitism, plain and simple.
This is a step up from the morning’s coverage, when none of ABC, CBS, NBC bothered to cover the protest. It is unclear to me why they’d put “antisemitic” in quotes as they did in the graphic displayed on the thumbnail image and in the video. Is the antisemitism in doubt? The report certainly didn’t feature anyone disputing the antisemitism inherent in accusing Jewish business owners of genocide. Even so, this is still more than the other guys did.
It’s not like CBS or ABC lacked the time to cover the story. They just chose not to. ABC did items on the arrest of a serial killer in Los Angeles and on a tanker that hit a bridge in Vermont, but not this protest. And YET they covered the stabbing of 3 loss prevention officers at the Macy’s in Philly. So someone could’ve done a package on the story. There was at least an awareness that bad things happened in Philly over the weekend.
CBS did stories on voter challenges in Georgia and on the sale of a Babe Ruth rookie card. Nothing at all about Philly.
Credit to NBC for showing up this time.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, December 4th, 2023:
LESTER HOLT: Tonight, the White House is condemning a pro-Palestinian protest outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in Philadelphia as completely unjustifiable and antisemitic. Stephanie Gosk is there for us tonight.
STEPHANIE GOSK: At Goldie falafel shop in Philadelphia, a lunchtime rush. Little sign of the scene Sunday night, where police say 400 to 500 protesters gathered.
MOB: Goldie, Goldie, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide!
GOSK: They accused the restaurant co-owned by Israeli chef Michael Solomonov of supporting genocide in Gaza. Today the White House called the protest antisemitic. Pennsylvania's governor said it echoed 1930s Germany.
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO: The purposeful gathering of a mob outside of a restaurant simply because it is owned by a Jewish person, well, that's antisemitism, plain and simple.
GOSK: Solomonov has multiple restaurants in the area specializing in Israeli food. He was born in Israel but grew up in Pittsburgh. So far, the award-winning chef hasn't commented publicly. A pro-Palestinian group that appears to have organized last night's protest called for a boycott of Goldie's and other Jewish-owned restaurants after the Israel-Hamas war began. The group did not respond to NBC News's request for comment.
ANDREW GORETSKY: If you're protesting policies in Israel, it's one thing. It's another thing when you're sitting here chanting things like “we charge you with genocide”.
GOSK: For some, lining up today for falafel was a kind of counterprotest.
MICHAEL DIAZ: People can have a lot of opinions about what's going on with the war in Gaza. I think it's a lot of things. It's tragic. It's complicated. What it isn't is an excuse to treat people badly.
GOSK: The protest here was part of a larger demonstration. There was some vandalism, but police say no arrests. Lester.
HOLT: All right, Stephanie, thank you.
