Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
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.
The lie stems from Tlaib’s comments on Nessel’s decision to prosecute 11 Gaza solidarity protesters from the University of Michigan. The student demonstrators are facing overreaching criminal charges for camping out on their own college campus to protest the funding of Israel’s genocidal war.
“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib told the Detroit Metro Times. “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.”
Tlaib’s accusation of anti-Palestinian bias, which is institutionally rampant nationwide, was immediately twisted by Nessel into an alleged antisemitic attack. “Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It’s anti-Semitic and wrong,” wrote Nessel on X. Again, Nessel’s religion was not mentioned.
Thus started the smear campaign.
CNN’s Tapper, unburdened by basic journalistic standards like checking quotes, took it as given that Tlaib had accused Nessel of bias as a Jewish prosecutor. On Sunday, he interviewed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and asked her if she believed Tlaib’s comments on Nessel were antisemitic.
“Congresswoman Tlaib is suggesting that she shouldn’t be prosecuting these individuals that Nessel says broke the law and that she’s only doing it because she’s Jewish,” said Tapper.
Whitmer demurred, choosing to stay out of the fray.
On Monday, CNN’s Bash doubled down on her show, playing a clip from Tapper’s segment. Bash said without equivocation that Tlaib accused “the state’s Jewish attorney general” of “letting her religion influence her job.” Bash called it a “sad reality” that the Michigan governor failed to condemn an incident of antisemitism that never occurred.
The remarks about Whitmer were part of a nonstop barrage based on Tapper’s misleading question. Eventually, Whitmer relented and released a statement to Tapper condemning Tlaib for comments which, again, Tlaib did not make.
Incredibly, Tapper and Bash kept going even as the journalist whose interview set off the fracas repeatedly admonished them that Tlaib had said no such thing.
On Tuesday, even though it had been clearly established that Tlaib made no such claim about Nessel, a group of 21 House Democrats released a statement. The statement condemned the unfair treatment of cases involving Tlaib’s religious background as antisemitic, disturbing, and unacceptable. While not directly naming Tlaib, the statement implicitly validated the false antisemitism accusations she faces.
Tlaib has been subjected to slurs and slander, with Republicans labeling her a “terrorist” and even a National Review cartoon insinuating she is a Hezbollah operative. Her own Democratic colleagues have censured her for speaking out against Israel’s actions and supporting Palestinian resistance.
The weaponization of antisemitism to silence Palestinian solidarity is not uncommon, with CNN staff themselves criticizing the network’s pro-Israel bias. Despite efforts to correct the record, false claims about Tlaib persist, leading to smear campaigns and baseless accusations of antisemitism.
Despite attempts at clarification, the story continued to focus on Whitmer’s response and the unfounded accusations against Tlaib. Whitmer’s failure to correct the record and defend her colleague only fueled the false narrative of antisemitism.
No public apologies have been issued to Tlaib, with Nessel doubling down on her unsubstantiated claims of Tlaib’s antisemitism. The lack of accountability and evidence in these accusations only perpetuates the harmful narrative against Tlaib. Please rewrite this sentence.
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