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.”
Literally an appeal to terrorism, it was the right move.
Wouldn’t that be a slight death threat? Or no, because he said he hoped it didn’t happen, ignoring the tone?
“it would be a shame if something happened to your family”
it’s a pretty standard form of threat in my opinion.
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.
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.
from the liver to the knee my internal organs shall be free
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
Care to site that source?
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?
Mehdi Hassan is amazing, what are you talking about.
They’re a Zionist. Don’t take their words seriously. 😁
You realize this comment is why people knee-jerk call those with this sentiment anti-semites, right? What part of Jews believing in restoring their ancient homeland makes them immediately dismissible? Not all zionists advocate genocide just like not all Palestinians advocate genocide.
Hello. I’m from the mongolic empire ancient homeland restoration committee and would like to ask you for your opinion on everyone just fucking off of the sacred land of Temüjin and his ancestors.
Because every bullshit claim on land once settled on MUST be given back to some random tribe that once settled there.
By the way, the italians may claim israel for themselves, because the romans once held it.
So Palestinians don’t have a valid claim, either? Only recency? If that’s the case, then Israelis have the most valid claim because they’re currently there.
what a goddamn idiot
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?”
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.
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.
Which country? You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific.
Do you know how little that narrows it down?
The exact quote that popped into my head.
Weird I don’t remember doing that
Yeah you just benefited from it and moved on
serbia? I mean, I think we should do the exact same thing to Israel honestly
bruh’s out here advocating for genocide
bruh, we stopped the genocides there, learn a bit of history, Most Serbians are upset that we didn’t let them slaughter the Kosovar Yugoslavs and Bosniaks
We Girdusky’s last brain cell doesn’t go on strike.
Mehdi is the GOAT.
“I’ll bet you wouldn’t say that joke about Muslims or Jews”. The joke they actually have in mind:
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.
You completely glossed over what I said. If he “said what he meant”, then he said nothing to wish harm.
“I hope you don’t get raped wearing that.”
Totally cool things to say.
You’re not making any argument against what I said. Your comment “totally cool things to say” implies I’m arguing that the guy on CNN said nothing wrong. Which isn’t true.
Well then, if I would tell you I" hope you don’t get a cut on your tongue from all the boots you lick" how would you interpret that? As its the same type of gist.
It’s incredibly spiteful and passive aggressive, but that’s still not wishing harm. For it to be wishing harm it would have to be “I hope you DO get a cut on your tongue from all the boots you lick”.
No. The message is hidden between the lines. He’s not saying he hopes they don’t get bombed; he’s saying you deserve it while hiding behind sarcasm.
he’s saying you deserve it while hiding behind sarcasm.
That’s still not wishing harm! This is basically “just desserts”. It implies the person gets what they deserve (good or bad). Depending on the context it can be benign or malicious, but it’s still not wishing harm.
It’s basically like saying “you are going to get hurt, it’s your fault, it’s what was coming to you, and I have no sympathy”. We can debate about which interpretation makes him look worse, but I’m entirely firm on my “not wishing harm” stance. I can agree I’m maybe splitting hairs or not considering intent, but the meaning of the words spoken is not literally about wishing harm.
You’re wrong on this one buddy. Using irony as a shield from consequences is a classic strategy for assholes and fascists alike. Just like the “it’s just a joke, bro”.
Have a nice evening.
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. The guest deserves to be gone.
