Media top headlines June 2
The media slamming DeSantis over Florida’s new transgender athlete bill, WaPo correcting a story about Tom Cotton and Chris Mathews appearing on MSNBC round out today’s top media headlines
"The View" co-host Meghan McCain and others jumped on Vox Wednesday after the left-leaning explainer site had no chief explanation for the recent surge in anti-Semitic violence.
"Violent anti-Semitism spiked in America during the Israel-Hamas war. And we don't know why," Vox tweeted, linking to a story by Zack Beauchamp.
"Cut the s**t," "The View" co-host Meghan McCain tweeted in response. "You know exactly why … It's just too ideologically inconvenient for you to say so. This is pathetic."
NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN SLAMMED FOR CALLING ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS ‘A GIFT TO THE RIGHT’
Other critics roasted Vox for equivocating over the role of anti-Israel sentiments in the U.S., particularly by far-left politicians.
The lengthy article conceded recent high-profile attacks on Jews "appear to be linked to the recent flare-up in fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas," noting some of the perpetrators waved Palestinian flags or chanted Palestinian slogans. The Anti-Defamation League found preliminary evidence that anti-Semitic incidents, ranging from harassment to vandalism to assault, increased by 75 percent during the conflict between Israel and Hamas last month, according to Vox.
But the article made no mention of prominent critics of Israel, including "Squad" members like Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who have called it an "apartheid" regime. It also made no mention of prominent media members charging Israel with war crimes against Palestinians.
"If only the perpetrators of this violence were carrying signs and flags and screaming at their victims about why they were attacking them, Vox might be able to crack this impenetrable code, figure out this riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma!" tweeted deputy Newsweek opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon.
Commentary's Noah Rothman found it "off brand" for a site whose mission statement is to "explain the news."
The piece drew no conclusions about the onset of violence against Jews, saying theories ranged from them being isolated incidents without deeper meaning, to blaming "the rise of Donald Trump and the alt-right movement" since 2016, to a possible "Europeanization" of the United States.
"The link between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes in Europe is fairly well established," Beauchamp wrote. "It’s possible this connection is deepening in the United States, that people with anti-Israel views are increasingly more likely to blame American Jews for what they see as Israeli wrongdoing and are more likely to inflict physical violence upon them as a result."
Vox isn't always so cautious about its conclusions. Like numerous other left-leaning outlets, it was forced to issue a correction after initially declaring last year that the coronavirus lab-leak theory was "debunked."
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Beauchamp is known for previously reporting there was a non-existent bridge connecting the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
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