CNN Editor Resigns After History of Antisemitism Resurfaces

AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis, Edit: BNN
AP/Kostas Tsironis, Edit: BNN
Matthew Boyle
Washington, D.C.

An editor at CNN has resigned after a series of antisemitic comments he made resurfaced on Thursday.

CNN’s statement accepting the resignation of the editor makes clear the editor had worked at CNN for some time, and had made the antisemitic statements back in 2011.

The tweets from Mohammed Elshamy, a photo editor for CNN, first surfaced earlier on Thursday. They were until then still public on Elshamy’s Twitter account:

At first, CNN ignored Elshamy’s history of antisemitism:

Then Elshamy hid his Twitter account from the public:

It remains to be seen if CNN will be honest with its audience about this matter and any internal investigations into it. CNN has a history of covering up resignations of people involved in scandals in its organization. In 2017, three senior CNN officials resigned amid a fake news story on the Russia probe–and CNN has still not answered a series of questions about the matter and has not published, as is the ethical standard for organizations purporting to publish news content, its findings of the internal investigation into the publication of that fake news.

CNN spokespersons have not replied to requests for comment when asked who hired Elshamy, how these comments were not found during his hiring process when they were publicly available at that time, whether anyone else will be held accountable for the severe missteps in vetting of CNN staff, and whether CNN will be conducting a review of other staff for antisemitic comments or a review of CNN’s published content in which Elshamy had a role.

The CNN staff has also not answered whether such reviews, if done, will be in the interest of journalistic integrity made public for CNN’s audience to see.

CNN is moderating the Democrat presidential primary debates next week in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. It is unclear if rising antisemitism on the left is a topic that CNN will address in questions to Democrat presidential candidates. At this stage, network spokespersons have not answered whether such rising antisemitism–as displayed by Democrat Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in particular–is off-limits at the debate in the wake of the Elshamy resignation.

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