April’s Fools: C-SPAN Begins the Month with More “Blame-the-Jews” Tirades
One of C-SPAN’s most popular programs, Washington Journal (a 3-hour daily public affairs and call-in show), ushered in April with a double dose of “blame-the-Jews” tirades from the same caller. Once again, when it came to bashing Israel, a network host failed to uphold C-SPAN’s ostensible “one-call-per-30-days” rule.
It must be noted that C-SPAN, watched by more than 28 million viewers weekly (according to the network’s own estimate), allows no ethnic or religious group or nation except Israel and Jews to be repeatedly vilified on Journal broadcasts.
On April 5, “Pat” from Pittsburgh, an obvious conspiracy theorist, charged preposterously yet without challenge by either host Peter Slen or the guest that Israel manipulates U.S. elections through manufacture of voting machines (click here to listen):
When the American people are witnessing the massive manipulation of the election process when our election machines are being manufactured in the state of Israel which is manipulating our country on virtually every level, I think it is understandable that the skepticism of the American people is as high as it is.
On April 1, “Patrick” from Pittsburgh had launched into a propaganda tirade that began with an unsubstantiated and hearsay claim of a diplomat finding a key section of the U.S. State Department “occupied by Israelis,” proceeded to the wild assertion that there are “a billion” Americans (there are a little more than 300 million) and ended with the canards –- popular with both neo-Nazis and the extreme left –- that “Israel is the puppet-master of America” and leading this country into “another war of lies.” The guest’s dispassionate refutation of the caller’s smears could not relieve, ex post facto, Washington Journal host Paul Orgel of his professional responsibility to have recognized and quickly terminated the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish phone call in the first place. This is not a matter of censoring informed opinion, but of preserving air time from the lunatic fringe. Click here to listen.
C-SPAN can be contacted at (202) 737-3220, 877-662-7726, [email protected], [email protected]., twitter.com@cspanwj or facebook.com/CSPAN about its dismal, indefensible record of permitting on a regular basis (usually without challenge), callers’ defamations of Jews and Israel.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Israeli Peace Offers, Palestinian Rock Throwing Are M.I.A in Post Report
July 26, 2018
A June 28, 2018 Washington Post report, “Prince William visit Jerusalem’s holy sites, concluding historic visit,” omitted key context and details about the Duke of Cambridge’s trip to Israel and areas controlled by the Palestinian [...]
Media Story About Ultra-Orthodox Responsibility for Lengthy El Al Delay Disputed
July 11, 2018
Israeli journalist Sivan Rahav Meir reports in The Times of Israel today ("That Ultra-Orthodox flight delay? It didn't happen") that media claims, based on a Facebook post by Israeli rapper Chen Rotem, that a group [...]
One Haaretz Page-One Sentence, Lots of Errors
July 11, 2018
One sentence in a page-one article of Haaretz's's English print edition yesterday packed in multiple errors. Headlined "Netanyahu: Israel to close commercial Gaza crossing over airborne firebombs," the article erred: Palestinians began flying the devices [...]
Media Largely Ignore Alleged Hamas Payment to Dead Baby’s Family
June 25, 2018
A New York Times caption which definitively claims that Layla Ghandour "fell ill after inhaling tear gas," despite the fact that the accompanying article itself acknowledges that the story involving tear gas was disputed Western [...]
PCUSA Stands By While Palestinian Activist Harassed by Extremist
June 20, 2018
Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid walks away from an aggressive and hostile “intersectionality” activist Bassem Masri outside the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly taking place in St. Louis. (Screenshot from Twitter.) Palestinian human rights [...]
AFP Whitewashes Gaza’s Serial Arsonists as ‘Activists’
June 19, 2018
June 20 Update: Multiple Media Outlets Amend Captions Calling Gaza Arsonists 'Activists' Numerous Agence France-Presse photo captions in the last couple of days misidentify Gazans responsible for airborne arson attacks which destroyed 28,000 dunums of [...]
Newsweek Headline Fail on Israeli Attacks in Syria
June 18, 2018
A grossly misleading Newsweek headline ("Israel Bombs Syria to Stop Refugees Fleeing to Europe, Netanyahu Says," June 14) falsely suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is bombing Syria in order to [...]