The Israel-Hamas conflict is spreading in newsrooms
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As the hosts of the self-described “centrist” cable news channel NewsNation call out MSNBC for allegedly “pandering to the far left” in its coverage of the bloody Gaza conflict, the network’s cousin is facing its own internal drama following a host’s harsh criticism of Israel the Hamas terrorist attacks.
Briahna Joy GrayCo-host of The hills Online morning show Risinghas drawn criticism from staff at the Beltway political outlet, with some calling it a “pro-Hamas” and “fringe” comment.
During recent broadcasts, she got into extremely heated and sometimes profane arguments with the libertarian co-host Robby Soave about Soave’s belief that the “American left,” namely Black Lives Matter and Democratic Socialists of America, supports Hamas.
Aside from literally engaging in shouting matches with her co-star, the former Bernie Sanders The press spokesman was criticized internally for this hill As one newsroom source put it, he appeared to be “finding ways to justify Hamas’ actions.”
In broadcasts last week, Gray bristled at conflicting reports about whether Hamas terrorists had beheaded babies, suggesting it was a propaganda lie designed to dehumanize Palestinians and justify genocide. She also appeared to downplay the killing of Israeli children, describing it as part of a battle.
“We must also make room for 140 Palestinian children killed during this final weekend of conflict,” Gray said said On Wednesday. “And it’s terrible, even if we don’t have the same images of them and even if they were killed by bombs from the sky rather than in hand-to-hand combat.”
Another point of contention is how she appeared to equate the terrorist attacks with Palestinian resistance to Israel’s oppression of the Gaza Strip.
“Violence is not a violation of international law. “Resistance is not a violation of international law,” she said explained on Thursday and pointed to the American Revolution and the Ukraine War as analogous situations.
Additionally, her comments about Israel’s long-standing tensions with Palestine raised some eyebrows.
“So few of our conversations get into what it means to have a Jewish state, what it means to believe that you can’t be safe without such a demographically manipulated situation,” she explained on Thursday’s episode, adding She understands the “obviously historical conditions that give people such feelings.”
Several hill Reporters expressed concern about Gray’s “reckless” comment and feared that her status as co-host of her morning show would complicate her job in discussions with lawmakers in Washington.
“Where is our leadership? Apparently no one at Nexstar is paying attention,” said a source. “There’s no way she would be okay with that.”
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What’s remarkable is that the upheaval comes just a year later The hill abandoned for a long time Rising Contributor Katie Halper for calling Israel an “apartheid state” because of its treatment of Palestinians.
In fact, the program had been causing controversy and tension in the station for some time and led to the abrupt departure of a large number of the presenters.
Gray’s comment has not been noted by NewsNation, which is also owned by Nexstar. The channel has taken a largely pro-Israel stance in its coverage of the conflict, similar to the network Rest of the conservative and mainstream mediawhich led to MSNBC being heavily criticized for its “victim blaming” of Israel, particularly targeting Muslim-American hosts.
“That ridiculous comment set the tone for much of MSNBC’s coverage over the weekend, where many anchors seemed determined to say, ‘Well, what about the Palestinians?'” NewsNation anchor Dan Abramsfor example, raged last week.
Gray and a Nexstar representative did not respond to a request for comment.
The uproar wasn’t just limited to Nexstar’s newsrooms.
NBC News caused a stir last week after an engineering department employee used an all-staff Slack channel to promote a Microsoft Teams event where employees mourned and shared stories about the lives lost in the Hamas attack Family and friends were able to discuss the location.
But according to a producer for MSNBC, the segment descended into chaos Ali Velshi questioned a lack of Palestinian representation at the event. The technical staff member then flagged a human resources representative and claimed the meeting was “not about Palestinians and Jews/Israelis.”
“Anyone who joins this group must denounce the terror and what happened on Saturday,” the technical staffer wrote, noting that claims of “freedom struggles” and rationalizations “do not belong here.”
The producer rejected the insinuation and asked the staffer, “Why are you speaking for me?” Your comments are extremely offensive.” They accused the technical staffer of “equating the loss of Palestinian civilians with terrorism and saying I have no right , to grieve as you do.”
“They put words in my mouth and demand that I condemn the terror as if I had anything to do with it,” they continued. “I’m not sure how you managed to twist all of this by asking: As someone with friends who are currently trapped in both Gaza and Israel, where can I go to mourn?”
The back-and-forth was ended by a response from an NBCU communications representative who promised a follow-up event for both sides, but it was indicative of how the nuances of the Middle East conflict have formed battle lines at some news organizations. (The Slack exchange was first reported from Semafor.)
These have also made their way into the public space. Tate Jamesa video producer at NBC News Digital, threw public shade at the chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel reported an Israeli military spokesman’s claim that “Hamas probably booby-trapped the road leading south from northern Gaza” and caused an explosion that killed 70 Palestinians.
“[T]“To be clear, the speaker who said this also said he was not an expert and the evidence he presented was that some people tweeted about a video,” James tweeted.
“Many people, not just here but across the country and around the world, are understandably struggling to understand the horrors of last weekend and the war that followed,” an NBCU News Group spokesperson said in a statement. “We are giving our team members the support and space they need during this time.”
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