Michael Luciano at Mediaite is channeling Mehdi Hasan’s umbrage under the headline:
Some Former and Current CNN Staffers Are Reportedly ‘Disappointed’ With Dana Bash’s ‘Crazy’ and ‘Biased’ Coverage of Israel and Gaza
Luciano was quoting from Justin Baragona’s Bash-bashing article from Zeteo’s “Ragebait” newsletter – and naturally the “former and current CNN staffers” are dropping anonymous bombs, as usual.
The outrage came after Bash appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday and agreed with Maher as he mocked Democrats for calling Israel’s military action in Gaza a “genocide.” Maher said “they’re big on buzzwords and lawn signs.” Bash replied, “And likes on social media.”
Horrors!
Baragona’s article asked how could Bash be objective now? But the anonymous Israel-bashers don’t really want neutrality. They want a blatant bias.
“I think that Dana, her background, and her pattern of behaviors are pretty consistent,” a CNN insider told Zeteo. “She’s a huge advocate for the state of Israel, and just doesn’t really conceal that very well.”
A former CNN staffer noted to Zeteo that Bash’s State of the Union co-host, Jake Tapper, who is also a strong supporter of Israel, has nevertheless “let the Israeli government have it because those are the facts.” The piece also said Wolf Blitzer, who once worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been fairly “even-handed” in his coverage of Israel and Gaza.
Did you catch that? You have to trash the Israeli government, “because those are the facts.” Journalists constantly confuse their opinions with “the facts.”
Mediaite added Zeteo’s hot take: “It’s the way that Bash conducts herself on air that CNN sources pointed to as evidence of her personally ‘crazy’ and ‘biased’ approach towards covering Israel and Gaza, especially since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.”
It was apparently crazy for Bash to be alarmed two years ago that Jewish college students didn't feel safe on campus during "pro-Palestinian" protests:
“They lost the plot,” she said on CNN in May 2024. “They‘re calling for a ceasefire. Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages.” She added, “What you just saw is 2024 in Los Angeles. Hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe, and I do not say that lightly.”
“You know, Dana Bash has said all these stupid things about how there was a ceasefire on October 6, as if everything was just completely hunky-dory the day before the 7th happened,” a former CNN staffer told Zeteo, referring to that segment.
Whether Baragona is quoting two anonymous CNNers or three, they all seem to think it's rude to criticize the Hamas slaughter on October 7. From there, it was on to defending radical Rep. Rashida Tlaib from the Jews at CNN.
At least Mediaite ended with a CNN statement brushing back: “To use Dana, or any journalist’s identity, to cast suspicion on their integrity as a journalist is repugnant and says a lot more about the bias of those making the allegations than anything being alleged about CNN.”
