Alexandra Steigrad
MSNBC 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 Post.
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.
A network source said the hosts were not “benched” or “silenced” over any supposed pro-Palestinian sentiment and told The Post that Velshi has been reporting from Israel “every day, getting more air time than he gets most weeks,” and as of Friday night, Velshi has been on air 39 times and Mohyeldin 15 times since the news broke.
The source said both men had anchored at some point over the weekend, noting that Mohyeldin’s weekend shows were preempted by a special report on the war.
The person added that Mohyeldin has appeared on several programs on MSNBC as a guest including shows hosted by Joy Reid and Chris Hayes, and that Hasan’s Peacock show is taped, and the network shelved the show in favor of keeping coverage on the NBC streaming service more “up-to-date.”
Sources said other hosts like Symone Sanders-Townsend and Lindsay Reiser also had their schedules affected by coverage needs.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
NewsNation host Dan Abrams said on his nightly show “Dan Abrams Live” that the three hosts were attempting to “pander to the far left” and he slammed them for saying the Hamas assault was the result of “failed policies” by Israel and the US.
“Right. It’s Israel’s fault. It’s the United States’ fault,” Abrams said mockingly on Monday. “The policies that somehow justify or even explain the slaughter, rapes, and kidnapping of innocent civilians.”
“And that ridiculous commentary set the tone for much of MSNBC’s coverage throughout the weekend, where many hosts seemed determined to say, ‘Well, what about the Palestinians?’”
Abrams also called out MSNBC’s push for “nuance” and context, but said it isn’t necessary when it’s a “story that fits their political agenda” such as an “officer-involved shooting.”
“Look, this is not a both-sides story, period,” Abrams said, noting that since Saturday, the network has made 441 references to Hamas members or “the fighters” — in an effort to avoid calling them “terrorists.”
It’s not the first time the MSNBC hosts have been under fire.
In 2021, Hasan and Mohyeldin both covered the violence in Israel, and according to Semafor, they both emphasized the impact of violence on Palestinian civilians “with a strong skepticism of the use of Israeli military force.”
Semafor said that privately, MSNBC execs had expressed discomfort with the two Muslim hosts covering the conflict.
American political pundits also weighed in. A Washington Examiner editor at the time accused Mohyeldin in a tweet of “denying Israel’s existence” following the anchor’s aggressive questioning of Netanyahu’s spokesman.
Prior to that, in 2014, Mohyeldin, the network’s most experienced reporter in Gaza, was abruptly pulled from NBC’s coverage of the region and replaced by Richard Engel for several days, Semafor said.
CNN reported at the time that NBC execs did not give Mohyeldin a concrete explanation beyond citing vague “security reasons.”
According to Semafor, MSNBC did not air a scheduled Thursday night episode of “The Mehdi Hasan Show” on the streaming platform Peacock. It also reversed a plan for Egyptian American host Mohyeldin to fill in this week on the network for host Reid’s 7 p.m. show Thursday and Friday.
Sources said MSNBC planned to have Alicia Menendez fill in this upcoming weekend for Velshi, a third Muslim American host who on Sunday interviewed a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority.
Anti-Donald Trump radio host and ex-GOP Rep. Joe Walsh blasted MSNBC on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing:
“I’ve been told this is true. That @MSNBC has silenced three of its Muslim broadcasters since the Hamas attack. This is utter bulls—t. This is wrong. @AliVelshi , @mehdirhasan , & @AymanM are total pros – objective, tough, fair journalists. I may disagree on their perspective on the Middle East, but we need to hear their perspective. Shame on MSNBC.”
Perhaps coincidentally, Velshi tweeted Saturday morning to announce he’s leaving Israel, where he had been covering the war for a week.
This post was originally posted by New York Post
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings