MATTHEWS: Media’s treatment of anti-Israel protesters reveals much — about the media

These folks with their hateful rhetoric and calls for “intifada” are far more deserving of the description “hateful/bigoted” label than the Tea Party

Student protesters march around their encampment on the Columbia University campus on Monday in New York. (Stefan Jeremiah / AP Photo)

It is without fail that any time a conservative march or rally is held, the mainstream media searches long and hard for that one lone person in the crowd who is carrying a Confederate flag. They then proceed to use that one person to portray the whole movement as hateful/racist/bigoted/whatever their word for the day might be.

And if they manage to find a few people among them who genuinely are bad apples, the same rule applies.

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Strangely, those rules don’t apply when it comes to left-wing agitators, though, which we’ve seen over the last decade or so when it comes to protests held by left-wing groups like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and now the anti-Israel marches on college campuses.

Vandalism, looting, rioting, arson and sometimes even assault are commonplace at hardcore left-wing gatherings. Though we haven’t seen the anti-Israel campus encampments devolve into that yet, what we have seen is a whole lot of antisemitism on display, with some demonstrators openly chanting support for Hamas terrorists in the Israel-Hamas war.

At some, there have even been death threats, which we saw last week when one anti-Israel marcher was caught on tape multiple times expressing how he would like to kill a male counterdemonstrator. He also used homophobic slurs and encouraged the man to perform a sexual act on him.

There was also Columbia University anti-Israel student Khymani James, one of the leaders of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest movement, a movement that also includes Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) daughter, Isra Hirsi.

In January during a disciplinary video session with campus administrators, James repeatedly talked about his barely repressed desire to murder Jews.

“Be glad, be grateful, that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists. I’ve never murdered anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way,” James said at the time.

“I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die,” he also said.

Incredibly, he was not disciplined, let alone expelled, for his remarks. Instead, he was allowed to continue his “education” at the university, where Jews have increasingly felt unsafe and unsupported by those in leadership positions, including Minouche Shafik, the university’s president.

It was only when the video resurfaced in light of James’ prominent role in the Columbia encampment, a role that included leading his fellow occupiers to form a human wall to push Jews off campus, that he was “barred” from returning. It is unclear if he’s actually been expelled, though.

With Democrat leaders across the country expressing support for their right to protest, with some including Omar standing in solidarity with the radical protesters, the mainstream media has been quick to reserve judgment and withhold labeling, simply referring to them as “peaceful protesters” and “pro-Palestinian” students.

Why is that, exactly?

These folks with their hateful rhetoric and calls for “intifada” are far more deserving of the description “hateful/bigoted” label than the Tea Party and related conservative groups ever were.

But don’t hold your breath waiting on the mainstream media to hold them to the same standards they’ve held conservatives. That’s because, unlike the Tea Party, there are a significant number of newsrooms that are deeply divided on how to cover the Israel-Hamas war and the protests here at home because some of them, just like the protesters, also have anti-Israel sentiments.

Once again, the anti-Israel left and their media allies are showing us who they really are, and we should respond accordingly in the court of public opinion every single chance we get.

North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.