As the New York City mayoral election drew nearer, the Media Research Center ramped up its meltdowns over candidate Zohran Mamdani. Alex Christy groused in an Oct. 17 post:
In a Thursday article entitled “Mamdani Faces Attacks After Comments About Hamas,” New York Times city hall bureau chief Emma Fitzsimmons got more offended that people have condemned mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for not saying Hamas should disarm and disband than the actual comments themselves.
Fitzsimmons, sounding more like a far-left op-ed columnist than a reporter, began by lamenting, “Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, faced vitriolic attacks that suggested he was a terrorist sympathizer after he gave an indirect answer to a question on Wednesday about whether Hamas should lay down arms and step aside in Gaza.”
After several quotes from GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen, and a top advisor to mayoral opponent Andrew Cuomo denouncing Memandi as a “jihadist” (Stefanik) and “unfit to hold any office in the United States” (Gillen), Fitzsimmons hyped, “His allies described the rhetoric as xenophobic and dangerous.”
She then quotes Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec as saying, “We should call these comments out for what they are: lazy Islamophobic attacks on the Democratic nominee poised to become our city’s first Muslim mayor.”
Christy put on his comedy-cop cap to whine in an Oct. 22 post that an actual communist pointed out that Mamdani isn’t one:
Comedy Central’s The Daily Show is so desperate to prove that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is not a communist that it sent Desi Lydic to interview Communist Party USA co-chair Joe Sims to insist that Mamdani is not, in fact, one of them. Of course, Sims had to propagandize as well as he lamented his movement’s “bad reputation” and that communism is actually all about freedom to do what you wish, which might have been the funniest moment on the comedy shows all year.
After a montage of clips of people calling Mamdani a communist, Sims asked, “You’re saying Mamdani’s a communist?”
Lydic insisted, “I’m not saying that. People are saying that,” which led Sims to again wonder, “Really? How come nobody told me? I’m the co-chair of the Communist Party.”
After Sims insisted Mamdani is merely a democratic socialist, Lydic invited him to “explain the difference to me between the Communist Party and the democratic socialists.”
Sims explained that, “Well, the Communist Party believes that capitalism needs to be replaced fundamentally.”
That wasn’t good enough for Christy, who went on to play a weird bit of whataboutism: “Meanwhile, The Daily Show would never interview an actual Nazi to insist that a Republican is not one of them because late night is desperate to get Mamdani over the finish line.”
Steve Malzberg ranted in an Oct. 26 post:
The liberal media has been having a field day attacking New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo as anti-Muslim for his response to a statement made during an interview Thursday morning on WABC Radio’s “Sid & Friends In The Morning.” Cuomo chuckled when host Sid Rosenberg claimed that if there was another 9/11, Zohran Mamdani, who is the Democrat candidate for mayor, and a Muslim, would “be cheering.”
Of course there are legitimate reasons for Cuomo’s chuckle, which most of the media rather not touch.
Cuomo had just told Rosenberg, “People’s lives are at stake, G-d forbid another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” To which Rosenberg responded, “Yeah, you know I could. He’d be cheering.” Cuomo then chuckled and said, “That’s another problem.” On Friday, Mamdani held a presser, where he ripped Cuomo. On Friday’s CNN News Central, co-host Brianna Keilar brought on leftist Muslim comedian and talk show host Dean Obeidallah to discuss the whole issue. Did anyone chuckle when he compared Trump to Osama bin Laden?
The best she could do was to ask her guest, “When you look at Mamdani’s approach, do you have any constructive criticism for how he is approaching this?” How probing! And guess how Obeidallah responded. “Except that I’d like him to come on my radio show, I have no other criticism of him.” Of course he doesn’t.
Keilar didn’t challenge Obeidallah with troubling facts.
Right-wing talking points are not necessarily “troubling facts,” Steve.
Tim Graham huffed in a talking point-heavy Oct. 27 post:
If the “mainstream media” takes a position within a Democrat primary, they typically favor the most extreme candidate. Take New York democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Former governor Andrew Cuomo is the “mainstream” candidate, but he’s apparently an Islamophobic jerk. On Friday’s edition of ABC World News Tonight, anchor David Muir lamented Cuomo getting “personal” with Mamdani over 9/11.
Nowhere in this story does Muir or his overly general reporter Trevor Ault mention why anyone would suggest Mamdani was cool with 9/11 — no mention of his smiling picture with radical streamer Hasan Piker, who supports another 9/11 attack on America. No mention of his smiling picture arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And no mention of his refusal in a Fox News interview to say Hamas should disarm in its terroristic war on Israel.
Christy returned to whine some more in an Oct. 28 post:
Late night comedy’s all-out effort to drag Zohran Mamdani across the finish line in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election continued on Monday on Comedy Central with its most direct bit of campaigning. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart welcomed Mamdani to tell him how much “I love hearing” about his campaign and to claim that he has been surprised establishment Democrats have not fallen in line behind him.
Stewart insisted that he is not “blowing smoke,” but he clearly was, “And what I love hearing about this is, one of the things that has been so frustrating in our politics is so much of it has been defined over these last ten years as the negative case against someone, and finally—and I think this is not blowing smoke — I think you’ve made an affirmative case for people. I think the enthusiasm that they have for you is because you have made an affirmative case that’s not about protecting something that is going to be lost or a bad man that’s over there.”
In more examples of Stewart blowing smoke, elsewhere in the interview, Stewart would compare Mamdani to Jackie Robinson.
[…]Mamdani’s “affirmative case” is basically being the middle schooler who runs for student government promising no homework and free ice cream all day, every day. There’s also the Hamas propagandizing that, somehow, Stewart never managed to bring up in a 30-minute interview.
Christy was then horrified that Trump was brought up:
Turning to Trump, he continued, “Because it’s, you know—these are the same New Yorkers, whether we are representing them in city hall or Albany or D.C., and like you said, we have been telling them time and again that all we have to offer is not Trump. But this is also the city that created Trump. We have to reckon with that. And when you think about—”
Stewart then interrupted, “Did you hear, there was an audible gasp? ‘This is the city that created Trump’ and everyone was like, ‘Oh, my god, that’s right!’ Are we Dr. Frankenstein? Nooooo! Nooooo!’”
Yes, but instead of Trump, New York and the late night comedy shows should be more worried about giving the rest of us Mamdani.
Christy didn’t explain why nobody should worry about what Trump does and rants about.