MSNBC Owners Intervened Over Hostile Coverage of Israel After October 7
The troika of MSNBC's Muslim anchors caused wide consternation and backlash for appearing to justify Hamas's brutal massacres.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Ali Velshi and Mehdi Hasan
In a feature story discussing MSNBC’s left leaning brand and their relationship with parent company Comcast, the New York Times revealed Comcast pulled in NBCUniversal leaders—who manage MSNBC—to chide them on the coverage of Hamas’s invasion and massacre on Israel by MSNBC anchors Ayman Mohyeldin, Mehdi Hasan and Ali Velshi, which was then notably toned down.
On October 7th and in the aftermath, the three hosts— who are all Muslim, consistently critical of Israel and proudly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause—interviewed guests that blamed Israeli policy for Hamas’s attacks that killed, kidnapped and raped over 1,200 Israeli civilians, called for “context and nuance” while discussing Hamas “fighters” and “militants”, and generally attempted to both sides to horrific events of that day.
Their awful coverage saw MSNBC’s ratings tank as viewers raced to other channels to avoid the terrorist apologia, and led to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt calling out the network during a live appearance days later, saying “Who is writing the scripts? Hamas?”.
The Times revealed that the abominable ‘analysis’ so discomfited Comcast president Michael Cavanagh that he staged a rare intervention. He contacted to Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, the division that includes MSNBC, NBC News and CNBC, and expressed his distaste at what was being broadcast, and Conde passed on his concerns.
Within weeks, Mohyeldin, Hasan and Velshi all appeared to be sidelined. Velshi and Mohyeldin were rescheduled from hosting roles in what was thought to be a quiet suspension, while Hasan’s show was canceled and he left the network. Critics called out that network for supposed Islamophobia and “silencing Palestinian voices”, but MSNBC denied the charges said the lineup changes were “coincidental.”