MSNBC has denied a report that it quietly sidelined Muslim anchors amid slumping ratings and outrage over the network’s biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The explosive report from Semafor on Friday said the network has quietly taken Mehdi Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ali Velshi out of the anchor chair since Hamas’ cold-blooded terror attack on Israeli children, women, men and senior citizens.
MSNBC parent NBCUniversal told Semafor it did not sideline the hosts, saying the changes in the lineup were “coincidental.”
“We have and will continue to cover the barbaric terrorist attacks on defenseless civilians in Israel last weekend and the tragic war it has provoked thoroughly and in all their dimensions,” an NBCU spokesperson told The NY Post.
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| Graphic courtesy of RoadMN (w/permission) |
The network has lost 33% of its primetime viewers since the deadly attack on Israel. It also saw its total viewer figures plunge 24% for the four days between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10 compared to the same period the previous week.
The network has come under fire for refusing to refer to Hamas attackers as terrorists during its coverage, as well as providing reasoning around Hamas violence, which claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis and 30 US citizens.
Hasan, Velshi and Mohyeldin have been slammed by media critics over their Israel coverage.
National Review said MSNBC spent the week “justifying Hamas violence as the inevitable result of Israeli aggression,” citing Mohyeldin’s analysis that the attacks were the “very deadly consequences of failed policies” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.
Meanwhile, New York Post writer Jon Levine has pointed out that the three hosts spent parts of their careers at Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-run TV network.
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