Some Former and Current CNN Staffers Are Reportedly ‘Disappointed’ With Dana Bash’s ‘Crazy’ and ‘Biased’ Coverage of Israel and Gaza

CNN

CNN’s Dana Bash has taken heat from progressives over her coverage of Israel and Gaza, but the criticism is apparently not just confined to left-of-center media consumers, but extends to some of her former and current CNN colleagues.

On Wednesday night, Justin Baragona published a lengthy piece on Bash for Zeteo’s Ragebait newsletter in which he quoted several CNN sources who portray the Inside Politics with Dana Bash host as being completely “biased” toward Israel, especially since the Oct. 7 attacks. Bash gave her critics additional fodder during her Friday appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, when she reacted to Bill Maher’s claim that, “in the Democratic Party, as long as [your] faith isn’t Jewish, you’re good.”

“Well, you said it,” Bash said in agreement.

As Baragona noted, “Currently, there are 31 Jewish Democrats in Congress – counting Bernie Sanders – versus just four on the Republican side.”

Moreover, when Maher derisively said Democrats call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide because “they’re big on buzzwords and lawn signs,” Bash replied, “And likes on social media.”

“I think that Dana, her background, and her pattern of behaviors are pretty consistent,” a CNN insider told Zeteo. “She’s a huge advocate for the state of Israel, and just doesn’t really conceal that very well.”

A former CNN staffer noted to Zeteo that Bash’s State of the Union co-host, Jake Tapper, who is also a strong supporter of Israel, has nevertheless “let the Israeli government have it because those are the facts.” The piece also said Wolf Blitzer, who once worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been fairly “even-handed” in his coverage of Israel and Gaza.

Zeteo stated, “It’s the way that Bash conducts herself on air that CNN sources pointed to as evidence of her personally ‘crazy’ and ‘biased’ approach towards covering Israel and Gaza, especially since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.”

In one particularly memorable moment on CNN, Bash drew a parallel between protests against Israel’s retaliation in Gaza and 1930s-style anti-Jewish pogroms in Europe.

“They lost the plot,” she said on CNN in May 2024. “They‘re calling for a ceasefire. Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages.”

She added, “What you just saw is 2024 in Los Angeles. Hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe, and I do not say that lightly.”

“You know, Dana Bash has said all these stupid things about how there was a ceasefire on October 6, as if everything was just completely hunky-dory the day before the 7th happened,” a former CNN staffer told Zeteo, referring to that segment.

Zeteo also highlighted a 2024 incident in which Bash and Tapper promoted a fake narrative claiming that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) had accused Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) of charging pro-Palestine demonstrators because she is Jewish. The reporter who interviewed Tlaib, to whom she allegedly made that claim, made clear to Tapper at the time that the congresswoman “never said Nessel did this because she was Jewish. Never. You’re spreading lies.”

In a statement to Zeteo, a CNN spokesperson said, “We reject these assertions entirely. They are based on prejudice, not fact and are deeply offensive. Dana Bash is a well-respected, award-winning journalist who has been trusted by audiences for more than three decades to deliver impartial and accurate coverage of U.S. politics and world events.”

The statement also accused Zeteo of writing about Bash’s coverage of Israel because of her “identity.”

“To use Dana, or any journalist’s identity, to cast suspicion on their integrity as a journalist is repugnant and says a lot more about the bias of those making the allegations than anything being alleged about CNN,” the statement added.

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