The Appalling Attack on Ta-Nehisi Coates Is a Massive Media Failing

We’re waiting for similar reparations from another
television news outlet that engaged in similar slander. A week prior to Coates’
on-air mugging, Rep. Rashida Tlaib was baselessly smeared on CNN, with anchor
Jake Tapper fabricating
comments from Tlaib to frame a “gotcha” question for Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer, trying to get Whitmer to condemn Tlaib as antisemitic for something
she never said. When Whitmer wouldn’t, another CNN anchor, Dana Bash did a very
special segment where she stated antisemitism is a both-sides problem and then refused to
apologize for having mischaracterized Tlaib, in a  follow-up segment to address the widespread
criticism of her first.

CNN harmfully distorted a legitimate critique: Tlaib, in
an interview with a Detroit news outlet and in alignment with the position
of the American Civil Liberties Union, opposed Michigan Attorney General Dana
Nessel’s decision to charge peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters at the
University of Michigan, saying, “This is a move that’s going to set a
precedent, and it’s unfortunate that a Democrat made that move. We’ve had the
right to dissent, the right to protest. We’ve done it for climate, the
immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice
among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the
issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone
speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”

But on a deeper, darker level, CNN’s refusal to interrogate
why it is allowed to comb every word Tlaib says for antisemitism while never having
to confront whether wrongly and constantly accusing Tlaib of antisemitism—a serious accusation!—is Islamophobic is part and parcel with our
society’s refusal to recognize Palestinians as full people. Because if
Palestinians do not get to exist fully in the world, then certainly the first
Palestinian woman elected to Congress cannot enjoy the full benefits and privileges
afforded to every other member of the House of Representatives.