The "Crime" Of Decent Journalism
Journalism Is Now A Social Crime. If It’s Pro-Jewish.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, like all grifters before him, has made a career of lying. One of his central personal tenets is that he views America through the prism of someone who grew up in “Jim Crow America.” This despite being born a decade after the end of the Civil Rights movement. His legion of fans accepts it, because that lie FEELS better to them than does the truth: Coates is a highly privileged individual who is treated as a uniquely insightful talent, even though his “insights” are childishly simple minded. He fits the woke profile, so all of that is ignored.
This is a guy who said “he felt nothing” as he watched the World Trade Center towers come down, with his own eyes, on 9/11.
His father, a former Black Panther, is about to receive a “lifetime achievement award” from the National Book Foundation. He was also the founder of a company in 1978, Black Classics Press, which is republishing an antisemitic crapfest called “The Jewish Onslaught.”
His son’s early life was steeped in the same black nationalism, racism and hate, so it is no surprise that Ta-Nehisi hates Jews.
Like his father, Coates has a long history that makes that fact obvious. His new book “The Message,” should make it clear even to his biggest admirers what a cretin this man is.
It won’t because they agree with him. That is clear, each and every day, as the far left continues to swarm the streets globally spewing every single lie imaginable about Jews and Israel.
To illustrate the point: Coates just completed a media tour to promote the book. The media, unwaveringly, lauded him as a visionary, a mighty man of our time, and a hero with unique insights into American society. Which is exactly what they always do.
The single exception was Tony Dokoupil, a host on “CBS Mornings.”
This is the same CBS, by the way, that edited out Kamala Harris’ recent answer when asked if Benjamin Netanyahu is an ally of the United States. (Spoiler: she doesn’t think that the democratically elected leader of Israel, hugely popular since the war began, is our ally).
You also need to know that Coates’ sole experience with what he (of course) refers to as “Palestine” consists of a single ten-day trip to Israel.
When he returned “New York Magazine” was so enamored with him that they did a cover story on him, because again: all hail the conquering woke hero. They were ecstatic that this ignorant man, with no history whatsoever demonstrating that he understands a single aspect of the region’s history, was going to “change the way we think about Israel and Palestine.”
How was he going to do that? It doesn’t matter because he has the correct political views and skin color. Because he makes his fans feel morally superior. Facts are the last thing that they care about.
Coates’ book makes it clear that, predicably, and absurdly, the entirety of his opinions on “Palestine” are viewed through an ahistorical overlay of Jim Crow America.
From the New York Magazine article:
“For Coates, the parallels with the Jim Crow South were obvious and immediate: Here, he writes, was a ‘world where separate and unequal was alive and well, where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet for others was policy.’ And this world was made possible by his own country: “The pushing of Palestinians out of their homes had the specific imprimatur of the United States of America. Which means that it had my imprimatur.”
In other words, he sees the experience of Palestinian Arabs as identical to blacks in America after the Civil War (and right up to today, despite the massive, and undeniable, society changing achievements of the Civil Rights movement). He spews the usual idiocy about Israelis being “settler colonialists,” Jews as “white,” and Zionism as a form of imperialism.
Predictably, the book doesn’t mention Jewish indigeneity. The book also completely fails to mention terrorism, Hamas, the first intifada, the second intifada, or Oct. 7. The entire point of the book is that Jews are bad, and Israel has no right to exist.
It was to promote that group of lies that led him to the appearance on CBS with Dokoupil. Who, in a rare example of actual journalism, did his job and asked Coates obviously correct questions like:
“Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?”
“Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?”
“Why not detail anything of the first and second intifada. . . the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits?”
For merely asking those questions, CBS news chastised, and attempted to embarrass, Dokoupil.
During its editorial meeting held on, wait for it, Oct. 7, the head of CBS news, and other members of its executive team, whined and moaned about how the story (i.e. Dokoupil’s questions) did not meet the company’s “editorial standards.”
Wendy McMahon, head of CBS News, began her remarks by saying that covering a story like October 7 “requires empathy, respect, and a commitment to truth.” She also stated that “We are here to report news without fear or favor…There are times we fail our audiences and each other. We’re in one of those times right now, and it’s been growing. And we’re at a tipping point. Many of you have reached out to express concerns about recent reporting. Specifically, about the CBS Mornings Coates interview last week as well as comments made coming out of some of our correspondents’ reporting…. I want to acknowledge and apologize that it’s taken this long to have this conversation…. This goes way beyond one interview, one comment, one story. This is about preserving the legacy of neutrality and objectivity that is CBS News,” she said. “We want every show to be a place for courageous and robust conversations and discussions.”
This was all meant to demean Dokopuil for daring to ask Coates ANYTHING that wasn’t aligned with the left’s anti-Jewish narrative. Asking serious, fair questions, is now classified (if you are pro-Jewish) as somehow a sign of non-neutrality. When questions like his, were, and should be, the VERY DEFINITION of journalistic neutrality.
Also a problem for these people: Dokoupil has two children living in Israel. That fact, of course, was later used to suggest that he couldn’t possibly be objective. Which is odd, I don’t remember a single other instance of a reporter being told that he can’t be objective because of where his/her kids live.
After the initial editorial team meeting, he was confronted by other CBS employees who said that his comments were, “racist” (of course), “xenophobic” (of course) and “Islamophobic” (of course again, and somehow “Jewophobia” never comes up).
An additional meeting , as reported by the Free Press, was supposedly called to “address the trauma” caused by asking Coates’ the only real questions he heard during the entire media tour. What was the agenda? The topic of whether it is “fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.” Really. That happened in an editorial meeting of one of America’s major news networks.
According to the same article:
“One last thing: Let’s just say we have pattern recognition around stories like these. So when two sources at CBS told The Free Press that this whole dustup involved the network’s ‘Race and Culture Unit,’ we weren’t shocked.
According to the company’s website, this unit works ‘in concert with the CBS News Standards and Ethics department to ensure all stories have the proper context, tone, and intention.’”
The typically Orwellian nature of the textbook leftist speak is unmistakable. It should scare anyone who believes in journalistic integrity and understands that using “ethics” as an excuse to censor views that are contra their narrative, kills a free, and independent, press.
Which brings me to a related recent story.
A couple of days after the meltdown over Coates’ delicate feelings, it was revealed that in August, Mark Memmott, the senior director of standards and practices at CBS News had ordered its staff not to call Jerusalem the capital of Israel. In fact, he wrote: “do not refer to it as being in Israel.”
I’ll remind everyone: Jerusalem has been the capital of two Jewish kingdoms, and the modern state, while it has never, not ever, not once, not even a little bit, not for a millisecond, been the capital of ANY OTHER entity. AND, even according to the 1948 UN borders, much of present-day Jerusalem is, in fact, IN ISRAEL. After 1967, of course, we reclaimed the remainder of our historic capital.
The Knesset (Israel’s parliament), the home of the Israeli president, and the prime minister: all in Israel, and in the capital. Israel is the only country on earth not allowed to determine where its capital is. At least that is the case according to the antisemites at CBS news.
It is clear that the breakdown of societal standards, including those of Journalism, allows our enemies to continue to grow their sick ideology, which is anti-Jewish in every possible way.
Never give in. Never back down.
Am Yisrael Chai.
This article originally appeared in Orange County Jewish Life.
Joshua Namm is a longtime Jewish community pro, passionate Israel advocate, and co-founder/co-CEO of Moptu, a unique social platform designed specifically for article sharing, and dedicated to the principle of free speech.