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.
via: Deadline
UPDATED with CNN statement and commentator’s response: CNN says commentator Ryan Girdusky will no longer be welcome on the network after his offensive remark to fellow guest Mehdi Hasan on Monday night.
“There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air,” the network said in a statement shared by host Abby Phillip tonight.
Earlier tonight on NewsNight with Abby Phillip, Girdusky was ushered off the show during a commercial break after making a crass comment suggesting Hasan was a member of terrorist organization. In a video accompanying CNN’s statement, Philip apologized again for the incident just as she did earlier on her show.
Phillip also says in her video message that, although Hasan did not reappear after the commercial break, CNN did not ask him to leave as it had with Girdusky, and that the choice was Hasan’s. “In fact we really wanted him to come back and finish the show,” she said, adding that she hopes he’ll return to the show soon.
In post on X, Girdusky wrote, “You can stay on CNN if you falsely call every Republican a Nazi and have taken money from Qatar-funded media. Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for.”
Girdusky was having an argument with Hasan over the rhetoric used at Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden.
Hasan said that “if you don’t want to be called Nazis, stop doing, stop saying,” but he was interrupted by Girdusky. He noted that Hasan was called an “antisemite more than anyone at this table.”
“By you,” Hasan said.
Then, Girdusky denied that he had called him that.
“I am in support of the Palestinians, so I am used to it,” Hasan said.
“I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky replied. That was a reference to the exploding beepers of Hezbollah members, although Girdusky mentioned Hamas when the discussion devolved into crosstalk.
“Did you guest just say I should be killed on live TV?” Hasan asked Phillip.
Phillip told Girdusky, “That is completely out of pocket. You know that.”
“I apologize,” Girdusky said.
After a commercial break, Phillip apologized to Hasan and noted that Girdusky was no longer at the table.
“There is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me,” Phillip said. “It’s not acceptable to us at this network. We want discussion. We want people who disagree with each other to talk to each other. But when you cross the line of a complete lack of civility, that is not going to happen here on this show. It’s a heated time. We’re in the middle of a political season. We are eight days from a presidential election, but we can have conversations about what is happening in this country without resorting to the lowest of the lowest kind of discourse. I want to address that and I want to apologize to the viewers at home, because we want to be able to hear each other, we want to be able to talk to each other.”
Hasan was an anchor for MSNBC before his departure earlier this year. He then started his own media company, Zeteo.
Since Faux News is more accepting of racist remarks, Girdusky can go be a commentator over there.
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