Media personalities and journalists cheered Ayman al Zawihiri’s death in a CIA drone strike last week. Networks used patriotic language to praise the well-executed attack. ViewJoy Behar, Joy’s co-host, even made a comparison between Joe Biden and action hero Liam Neeson. Taken.
Americans can all rally behind the happy ending of one key plotter of 9/11. Yet liberals in the media didn’t react this way when the United States took out Iranian terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
But first, here’s how CBS News journalist John Dickerson closed live coverage of the death of al-Zawahiri on August 1, 2022. Over a live shot of Manhattan, he offered these stirring words: “All those that plotted the [9/11]Attackers either die or are captured. One World Trade is the highest building in the Western Hemisphere. A reminder of the resilience of New York City and the American people.”
During ABC’s live coverage on August 1, Cecilia Vega hyped Biden, citing last year’s disastrous pull-out of Afghanistan: “There seems to be a little bit of ‘we told you so’ coming from the President and certainly senior administration officials here.”
She concluded: “Senior administration officials say this is proof you don’t need American troops on the ground and in harm’s way in Afghanistan.”
These liberal women areThe ViewOn August 2, they were shocked. Reacting to video of Biden announcing the death of al-Zawahiri, co-host Joy Behar gushed, “He’s like Liam Neeson” in the Taken series. Quoting from the 2008 movie, she spun Biden’s speech this way: “I will find you and I will kill you.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg made things explicitly partisan: “A Democratic president did this, not a Republican.”
The networks were not the same when Soleimani was eliminated by the United States on January 3, 2020. On that morning’s Today show, co-host Hoda Kotb appeared to portray the terrorist’s death as bad news for the U.S.: “Iran vowing retaliation amid fears the two nations are on the brink of an all-out war. Oil prices already skyrocketing.”
Nightly NewsLester Holt, anchor, poured cold water over the death Soleimani. James Stavridis (NBC military analyst) spoke to me about the topic. Today, he asked: “Is this a more dangerous world we’re waking up to?” “Indeed it is,” Stavridis replied.
Both Holt and guest Andrea Mitchell highlighted Democrats calling the killing “reckless.” On the same day’s Good Morning America, Mary Bruce explained that members of Congress weren’t happy with Donald Trump, “warning that this is a reckless escalation that could have serious dire consequences.”
The 3rd of January 2020 CBS This Morning, Holly Williams described the man who ordered the killing of U.S. military members as “revered,” “inspiring” and a “military genius.” Like her colleagues, she put a negative spin on the U.S.’s actions: “There are fears that the killing of Soleimani, a revered figure in Iran and some other places in the Middle East, could see simmering tensions between the U.S. and Iran turn explosive.”
Joy Behar. Contrary to Biden’s comparison, she didn’t compare Trump with an action star. The January 6, 2020 ViewThe host complained to the co-host:
Elizabeth Warren is running for President. She claims that Trump ordered Soleimani to be killed in order to distract from the impeachment. She’s not the only one saying that. They call this “wag the dog,” start a war to get distracted from the fact that you’re ready to get impeached.
Behar even contemptuously dismissed the danger of Soleimani this way: “Have we seen the intel on this so-called threat?”
Qasem Solimani was considered a threat to the United States. Ayman al -Zawahiri also was a threat to America. They are gone and the world is safer. But some media people and journalists are so blinded in partisanship they cannot be happy when a Democrat is applauded for the killing of a terrorist.
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