Once a year, they let the crazies out of the asylum to meet for what’s known as the Netroots Nations Conference. What’s a netroot? A netroot is sort of a cross between a serial killer and a Stormtrooper, although they are usually able to hide their worst qualities from the rest of us.
But sometimes, the mask slips and they just can’t help themselves.
Former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill claimed that news outlets like NBC and ABC were “Zionist organizations” that produced “Zionist content,” during a panel on Friday at the annual Netroots Nation summit held by progressive activists in Philadelphia.
The summit describes itself as “the largest annual conference for progressives” and has long been a stop for Democratic presidential hopefuls, including this year.
Hill’s comments came less than a year after he lost his CNN perch after calling for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” during an appearance at the U.N. The statement was interpreted by many as a call for the elimination of Israel, something Hill denied.
Not surprisingly, he denied it. He never said anything about the elimination of Israel. All he did was voice support for a “free Palestine” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Of course, there’s already a country that occupies that space on a map, but who’s keeping track? Maps are frangible. You just scrub one country’s name, write in another, and presto! No more Israel.
Here’s Mr. Hill with one of his good friends — Louis Farrakhan.
Decent people usually have to go through a rigorous decontamination regimen when they leave that conference. It keeps the infection localized.
He made his comments during a panel on “embedding Palestinian rights in the 2020 agenda,” which also featured statements that Israel was engaged in a “white supremacist” project.
Hill is “not going to suggest a conspiracy.” He says it out loud — as did other speakers:
In response to a question from the audience, Hill described the choices faced by young journalists when they tell stories about Palestinians.
“They’re like, I want to work for Fox, or I want to work for ABC or NBC or whoever. I want to tell these stories,” he said. “You have to make choices about where you want to work. And if you work for a Zionist organization, you’re going to get Zionist content. And no matter how vigorous you are in the newsroom, there are going to be two, three, four, 17, or maybe one powerful person — not going to suggest a conspiracy — all news outlets have a point of a view. And if your point of view competes with the point of view of the institution, you’re going to have challenges.”
At the summit, t-shirts were sold grouping Zionism with racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism as maladies to be “resisted.”
Other speakers channeled their inner Stormtrooper.
Other panelists on Friday seemed to imply a desire to eliminate the State of Israel entirely. Noura Erekat, a professor at George Mason University, proclaimed “the whole land is occupied” and said those “still having conversations about a two-state solution are either ignorant or malicious.”
In a way, all of this reminds me of “Dr. Strangelove,” who struggled mightily to keep his right arm from flinging upward in an enthusiastic Nazi salute when talking about an authoritarian America after the bombs dropped.
Yes, but that was fiction — wasn’t it?
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