This segment from Dana Bash on the Palestine protest movement is one of the most shameful things ever seen on cable news.

by Jack Mirkinson, Discourse Blog

I have covered the U.S. media for a long time. I have watched more hours of cable news than is healthy for any human being. I am under no illusions about the standards by which our biggest networks operate.

So I hope you will believe me when I say that this CNN segment on Wednesday about the pro-Palestine student protest movement is one of the most jaw-dropping, poisonous pieces of propaganda I have ever seen on a U.S. news outlet.

It came from CNN’s chief political correspondent Dana Bash, who has been a fixture on the network for decades, and it is so heinous that it merits a detailed response.

dana bash talks on cnn

OK. There’s so much wrong here that it’s hard to know where to start. For one thing, Bash said things that are simply not true. She said that “pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups were attacking each other” on the UCLA campus on Tuesday night. That’s not true! And everyone knew it wasn’t true by the time Bash said those words. From the Los Angeles Times (emphasis mine):

On Tuesday night, Dickson Court exploded into savagery and chaos. A large, mostly male crowd of masked counterdemonstrators tried to break into the encampment, ripping down wood and metal barriers, spraying bear mace, igniting stink bombs and tossing fireworks near the camp perimeter — and in at least one case inside the camp.

The violence came from a mob of pro-Israel supporters. It was not a “clash.” It was a one-sided assault. Bash lied.

When she wasn’t spreading her own falsehoods, Bash was mindlessly regurgitating other peoples’ spin. She happily co-signed the narrative pushed by New York Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD that protests at Columbia and City College had been masterminded by shadowy forces from outside the schools. “300 people were arrested at Columbia and City College of New York,” she intoned. “But it is unclear how many were actually students. New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned this morning that professional outside agitators are getting involved.”

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