The Media Research Center had a major meltdown when Zohran Mamdani emerged as the frontrunner for the New York City mayor’s race — and because the MRC is Trump Regime Media, those meltdowns unsurprisingly continued:
- Jeffrey Lord spent a July 12 column huffing: “Where is the massive, widespread media coverage of Mamdani and his on-the-record, decidedly virulent antisemitism?” We don’t recall Lord complaining when the organization that publishes his column had no apparent problem with Kanye West’s decidedly virulent anti-Semitism.
- A July 28 post by James Mortensen complained that the apparent failure of a free grocery store in Kansas City bodes ill for Mamdani’s plan to open free grocery stores in NYC, declaring that it “will almost certainly be a money pit.”
- An Aug. 10 post by Jorge Bonilla touted an interview with New York Go. Kathy Hochul: “Faced with the possibility of common ground with socialist candidate for Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani, Hochul accused his interview of ‘whitewashing’ the differences between them.”
Curtis Houck had his own meltdown in an Aug. 14 post:
On Thursday morning, Time magazine released its latest cover dated September 8 with the lead story “The Meaning of Zohran Mamdani.” Predictably, the story by Mark Chiusano was as mind-numbingly stupid and weak-kneed as a profile of Barack Obama in the mid-2000s.
Chiusano called him “very eloquent,” “fun,” and “more gifted than almost any of his peers,” and facing “adulation” plus “notoriety” in the face of “xenophobic death threats.”
[…]Chiusano predictably framed opposition as racist, calling it “a dark new birtherism” as a mere obstacle to what “progressives” believe are a politics that’s “principled, pocketbook-focused, and online…an electrifying answer for a moribund party.”
He described Mamdani’s comments to him as someone “want[ing] to be a mayor who breaks down barriers between politicians and the public.” Citing “more than 30” interviews, the Time tool said “Mamdani emerges as both more interesting and more complicated than the caricatures suggest” to the point that “[h]e is a movement politician…in touch with the streets.”
[…]Chisuano tried to humanize Mamdani as well, going to his roommate in Albany for legislative sessions to find out the New York City mayoral candidate “likes his TikToks” along with “reality-TV shows like Love Island” and “a big scoop of peanut butter” ahead of Ramadan fasts.
God forbid that a human being should be humanized! At no point does Houck denounce the death threats against Mamdani — perhaps because they are almost certainly coming from his side.
Bonilla returned for a Sept. 30 post complaining that another interviewer didn’t hate Mamdani as much as he does:
With New York Mayor Eric Adams bowing out of the 2025 mayoral race, CNN’s Erin Burnett saw fit to interview the frontrunner: State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. What ensued was not so much an interview as it was the construction of a warm cocoon from which Mamdani could emerge if it was safe enough.
The interview opens with a reaction to the news of Adams dropping out, with Burnett going so far as to speculate that there may have been some sort of quid pro quo between President Donald Trump and Adams. From there, Burnett moves towards a retribution question, specifically Trump’s threats to withhold funding to the city if they elect Mamdani.
Each of these is a softball very carefully crafted so as to elicit a crafted response from Mamdani, with infinitesimal pushback or followup from Burnett.
[…]Once again, these questions and their stunning lack of follow-up enable Mamdani to look good and polished as his race for the mayoralty enters the final phase. Burnett didn’t ask Mamdani a single question on where he’s going to get the money to pay for his extravagant proposals.
Viewers would’ve benefitted from actual journalism asking tough questions. Instead, they got propaganda and softball questions.
Bonilla didn’t mention the softball interview MRC then-boss Brent Bozell did with Ron DeSantis in an effort to boost his foundering 2024 presidential campaign so there would be a good comparison.
Nicholas Fondacaro used his Oct. 1 hate-watch of “The View” to rage that Mamdani got interviewed there:
After celebrating his win in the Democratic Party primary for the mayor of New York City back in June, ABC’s The View welcomed far-left, anti-Semitic, communist candidate Zohran Mamdani to Wednesday’s edition of the show with open arms. The cast fawned for Mamdani and they cooed about his “meteoric rise.” They repeatedly teed him up to knock down his detractors and treated his controversies with kid gloves at they allowed him to bloviate his way around them.
When introducing him, moderator Whoopi Goldberg boasted that Mamdani “has been a political lightning rod after pulling off a stunning victory” in the primary, and about how his “social progressive message is resonating beyond the borders of New York.”
[…]Mamdani turned up the charm as he answered, quipping that “it really is a Joy to be here,” while giving a nod to co-host Joy Behar. “Just named dropped you,” quipped co-host Sara Haines as the rest laughed.
Haines got to ask the next question, requesting him to speak about Mayor Eric Adams, who recently dropped out of the race. “Assemblyman, over the weekend, one of your opponents, embattled mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race. And while Adams didn’t name check you he did appear to make veiled swipes,” she prefaced before playing a soundbite. “What is your response to that and why do you think he’s decided to drop out now?”
[..]Following a commercial break, Haines came in with a question pressing Mamdani on his “inflammatory statements” against Israel “like calling Israel an apartheid state and questions its right to exist as a Jewish state.” She also noted how he was “evasive with a reporter about condemning Hamas,” but didn’t mention his use of “globalize the intifada.” “Given New York has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, why should voters who see this as a moral red line trust your clarity and judgment?” she wondered.
He claimed those were just “misconceptions” about him.
Fondacaro did concede that ” Mamdani got his toughest question in the whole interview from Farah Griffin, who grilled him on his past anti-police comments.” Which would be tougher than anything Bozell asked DeSantis.