CNN bans guest for telling Muslim journalist 'I hope your beeper doesn't go off'
CNN bans guest for telling Muslim journalist 'I hope your beeper doesn't go off'
Ryan Girdusky clashed with British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan on Monday night.
Ryan Girdusky clashed with British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan on Monday night.
CNN has banned a conservative commentator from appearing on the network again after he told a Muslim journalist "I hope your beeper doesn't go off," an apparent reference to the spate of exploding pagers in Lebanon that killed members of the Hezbollah militant group last month.
Ryan Girdusky made the comment during a heated debate with Mehdi Hasan, a prominent British-American broadcaster and an outspoken critic of Israel's war in Gaza, on "CNN Newsnight" with host Abby Phillip.
The guests were discussing the racist jokes made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, which overshadowed former President Donald Trump's rally at New York's Madison Square Garden on Sunday and continue to make headlines two days later.
As the debate turned fractious, Girdusky and Hasan sparred over whether the latter had been labeled an anti-Semite. "I'm a supporter of the Palestinians, I'm used to it," Hasan said.
Girdusky replied: "Well I hope your beeper doesn't go off."
I'm still flabbergasted that there hasn't been more of an international outrage concerning those pagers.
The use of mines as an indiscriminate weapon are already frowned upon,
And here they are using them, scattered throughout a civilian population with absolutely no regard to who could be standing next to their target.
Un-fucking believable.
There hasn't been outrage because blowing up people with pagers is actually the most targeted thing Israel has done in the past year. Certainly a step up from killing hundreds of refugees to maybe take out one hamas guy.
There has been minimal pushback to the Israeli apartheid regime and decades long genocide in Palestine. You think a few more deaths are going to inspire real international action?
Not mines, IEDs. It was an indiscriminate terrorist attack on a civilian population using improvised explosive devices.
What's even crazier for me to wrap my head around is those pagers were a safer method for civilians than what they've been doing. They're indiscriminately leveling city blocks killing thousands of innocents.
well we know who could be standing next to their target- another brown person in a majority muslim country. IE, nobody western supremacist racist pigs give a fuck about which is why there was no punishment and there will be no punishment against israel for any single thing they do. if it were gonna happen it would have by now. it's not as tho once they get to that 300,000th dead palestinian suddenly the "rules based order" is gonna enact some of those "consequences for breaking the rules" on israel. not gonna happen. someone needs to dylan crooks netanyahu.
The conflict is not one based on racism, it's literally based on religion and at least 3 groups of people in a small area using their religion to justify the murder of others. Full stop. Jews are not white. Jews who were expelled from Israel and became Europeanized are essentially genetically identical to the Jews that remained. Skin color is not race, but making this conflict about race makes that individual racist
Wait.. what?
I'm I reading that right?
12 people killed. 6 of which were 2 children and 4 healthcare workers.
But 2,800 wounded? So all of that wasn't even about neutralizing targets, but maiming?
How many were set off? I have a hard time believing a 12killed : 2800wounded ratio...
EDIT: Google says bout 5000 pagers
CNN: reports 37killked but 3,000 wounded.
The only people who had those pagers were Hezbollah members. Hezbollah has been lobbing missiles into Israel, killing civilians including children and forcing an evacuation. They picked a fight, why should there be an expectation that Israel just sits back and takes it? Don't get me wrong about Gaza, they have gone way too far there. But Hezbollah seems at least somewhat justified.
The only people who had those pagers were Hezbollah members.
Did they have camera's in them to know that? and also know about people in the surrounding area?
Hezbollah has been lobbing missiles into Israel, killing civilians including children and forcing an evacuation.
And you think this is the appropriate response to that?
I get the Israeli people are absolutely tired of this shit. But what makes them think that kind of response isn't going to do anything other than bolster the other sides hatred/resolve?
As they indiscriminately kill more, they are recruiting more to the cause. When someone loses their kids/brother/father/home/etc. That just makes them having nothing more to lose, and join the war. People don't want to fight. People just want to live their lives.
Israel is the one with all the weapons/tech/money in this. If the Israeli people are tired of this shit, they need to look at a leader who's not going to perform actions that just increases Hezbollah's and Hamas's numbers.
Pretty clear from the footage and lack of civilian casualties that the collateral risk was very low though
Yeah no, the exploding pagers and radios, which were from an intercepted supply specifically for Hezbollah, was far more targeted than anyone could reasonably ask for.
Like yes, Israel's overall actions in Gaza and Lebanon have been horribly ruthless and against civilian well-being. And there is the broader context of Palestine. But this is what you're outraged by?
If everything between bombing Hezbollah and targeted attacks like the pagers/radio are off the table, like what would you actually do if a non-governmental military was indiscriminately firing hundreds of rockets into your cities for an entire year? Seriously, how would you actually respond if you were in the leadership position?
Idk dude, generally things like booby traps are considered illegal in part because they're not selective. Like if someone breaks in and you kill them with a gun it's self defense, but if it's a booby trap then we view it differently. Disguising bombs as typical civilian items seems pretty messed up.
Girdusky appeared indignant on social media in the hours afterwards and said in a tweet "apparently you can't go on CNN if you make a joke."
"It was a prank, bro!"
The last refuge of the Trumpist shitheel.
Playing off hate as a joke, this is why it's okay to punch nazis
Punching nazis always produces a smile if not a laugh
Yup, there's also this idea that certain people like to posit that Nazis never laugh or attempt to make jokes. It's not that you aren't joking, it's what your joke says about you.
I can understand that in a particular moment you're not calling for the literal death of your political opponents, yet still believe you'd be pretty okay with the literal death of your political opponents, and your "joke" may well help me be more confident in my conclusion.
Yup. It came off as ignorant hate, not a joke.
“I’m a supporter of the Palestinians, so I’m used to it.”
“Well, then I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”
“Did you just say I should die?”
“Are you a Hamas?”
This goes back a long way. There are posts on neo-nazi BBS systems from the 80s where they are talking about the strategy of making a racist comment, then playing it off as a joke if there’s pushback, and noting that a given audience may be receptive to more extreme and overt racist messaging in the future.
Well, people like this Girdusky are a joke. At least that much is certain.
Basically telling someone who's Arab, "I hope you die" in the most racist way possible.
This hate is brought to you by Israel.
He hoped the beeper didn't go off though, isn't that the opposite of "I hope you die"?
Still not a good thing to say. Even if one were to believe him that it was a joke, it would still be pretty horrendous
Ever hear of sarcasm? That's the way it came off to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
GOP: "stop canceling me!!! everyone should be able to say whatever they want!!!!"
also GOP: "stop kneeling for the anthemmmmm!!!!"
Israelis are now using the same arguments as they do in Israel on American TV.
Not even Western media can protect them from themselves anymore.
The absolute state of Hasbara.
western media will always only protect israel. this dude isn't going to face any consequences. "banned from CNN", yeah we'll see about that. bro probably just had to get back to englin airforce base to post more zionist propaganda on reddit, he wasn't ever asked to leave and certainly not told to never come back. mark my words, he will be back on CNN within the next two months.
I am moreso hinting towards completely insane Israeli articles such as this not getting western coverage: https://lemmy.world/post/21368819
Good that they banned him. Wishing someone that has a conversation with you but does not agree with you this kind of harm means you need to be excluded from the discourse.
I agree that it was a blatantly out of line and wrong thing to say, but it's not wishing harm. At least the phrasing isn't.
Look at it this way. Say someone has tires on their car which are practically falling apart. The conversation goes:
Friend: "you really need to get new tires, they're complete thread-bare"
Owner: "nah, they're fine"
Friend: "you're being negligent, I hope you don't get into an accident"
The way the CNN conversation reads to me is that the guy was implying "if we listen to you, then things might progress to the point where you might get attacked, and I hope your pager doesn't go off".
Maybe that's not what he meant, but generally that's how such a statement is used.
No, he said exactly what he meant.
The logic Zionists employ: Palestinian = terrorist. Because Hasan said "I'm pro Palestinian" the other dude called him a terrorist and said harm should come to him using the phrasing "I hope your pager does not explode". Because of the Hamas pagers recently being blown up by Mossad and Mehdi is pro Palestinian so a terrorist and would have a pager of a terrorist organisation.
CNN and everyone at the table rightfully reacted the way they did.
What an utter piece of trash. I'm sure he'll have a good home at Newsmax or whatever.
Who financed Hamas to destabilize the PLO? Israel.
Reminds me of when you guys invaded my country, murdered my people and fucked off home to call us names and racist sluts for decades. No apology. Now you guys want to moralize to the rest of the world while your hands drip with blood.
Going on Twitter to complain that your bigotry wasn't well received and then suggesting that Qatar funding is partially to blame is peak irony
In person was all back tracking, and regret. Gets online, and is now a big, strong, keyboard warrior.
Mehdi is the GOAT.
Video clip of the comment and aftermath during discussion (via twitter): https://x.com/Acyn/status/1851085909435039789
"Are you a supporter of Hamas?"
"Are you a racist, violent person inciting violence against me?"
Good. The guest deserves to be gone.
they got so comfortable... they at least used to hide under their hoods before.
To think, all they had to do was appeal to the lurking bigotry within societies to bring them out and normalize that sort of language. They are sort of screwed if they think they aren't sliding into a world where the evangelicals being radicalized and increasingly in control of the nation financing and supplying it will come asking for their pound of flesh when the shift into a theocratically-narrative-driven oligarchy is established, and then take the whole body.
"I'll bet you wouldn't say that joke about Muslims or Jews". The joke they actually have in mind:
what a goddamn idiot
from the liver to the knee my internal organs shall be free
Wouldn't that be a slight death threat? Or no, because he said he hoped it didn't happen, ignoring the tone?
It's kinda hard to call that a threat. It's more accurate to say it's an accusation that the guy is a terrorist.
"it would be a shame if something happened to your family"
it's a pretty standard form of threat in my opinion.
Literally an appeal to terrorism, it was the right move.
We Girdusky's last brain cell doesn't go on strike.
Not just any Muslim journalist, Mehdi is a die-hard anti-Israel propagandist, so much so that MSNBC dropped him for his abhorrent comments after the Hamas terrorist attack
The only part of your comment that wasn't batshit insane conspiracy was msnbc dropping him, but you still got the reason wrong
What comment did you find so abhorrent?
Care to site that source?
Sure thing
https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/msnbc-scraps-anti-israel-host-mehdi-hasans-show/ https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/30/msnbc-mehdi-hasan-show-canceled-00129435 https://www.commondreams.org/news/mehdi-hasan-canceled https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/187m7v0/msnbc_cancels_mehdi_hasans_show_this_comes_after/
There are also a million right wing sources covering it of course, but I figure that lacks credibility in this context