In the last three days, CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have performed a masterclass in journalistic malpractice — better described in this case as “lying.”
Both anchors devoted concerted airtime to accusing Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., of antisemitism based on a comment they attributed to the Palestinian American member of Congress — a comment she never came close to making.
Anyone watching CNN’s “State of the Union” with Tapper on Sunday, or “Inside Politics” with Dana Bash on Monday, would have heard that Tlaib questioned Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s ability to fairly do her job because Nessel is Jewish. Little matter to the primetime journalists that Tlaib’s recent criticism of Nessel did not in any way mention or refer to the attorney general’s Jewish faith or identity.
If anyone wants to actually read this: https://web.archive.org/web/20240924204019/https://theintercept.com/2024/09/24/cnn-rashida-tlaib-dana-nessel-antisemitism/
TLDR: She implied the AG’s opinion to go after Palestinian protesters and not other protesters indicated a bias, which it certainly seems that way. The AG then says that calling this out is anti-semetic, as they always do. They can’t defend their actions, so they instead call into question the integrity of the other party.
The problem is that immediately following her quote saying it indicated bias (which it does), either the author of the interview or their editor inserted a line:
This bit:
"“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib says. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”
Nessel is the first Jewish person to be elected Attorney General of Michigan."
So it wasn’t Tlaib saying the religion of the AG was an issue, Tlaib stated it points to “possible biases” in the AGs office, the author of the article, or perhaps their editor, inserted the line perhaps to clarify which bias Tlaib was talking about.
Factcheck article from the same source here endorsing that idea:
You keep saying ‘clarifying what she meant’ everywhere. I just don’t get where you get that that’s what she meant. She just said she sees a bias against pro-Palestinian protesters. That’s not implying the bias has anything to do with Judaism at all.
There’s no other reason for the author (or editor, it’s unclear who did it), to immediately follow this direct quote:
“that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”
With this additional detail:
“Nessel is the first Jewish person to be elected Attorney General of Michigan.”
It’s clear the author/editor is trying to make that connection even if Tlaib did not.
🤡 behavior: replying to “They can’t defend their actions, so they instead call into question the integrity of the other party.” then proceeding to attack the writer of the article.
