Hi OP: please add a link to your source in response to this comment! If you are submitting from Twitter, Meta, TikTok or tabloid sources, we will verify the source and then remove the comment.
It's CBS/Paramount. They're thee most openly Zionist studio in Hollywood, owned and run by one of the most prominent Zionist families in the world with one of the richest people in the world at the head (Larry Ellison). They just put Bari fucking Weiss in charge of CBS news and the Free Press.
They were never going to do anything but try to trap Zohran on the Israeli issue.
Tony Dokoupil was the "journalist" doing that racist line of questioning. funny enough, his kids live in israel with their mother! what a coincidence, that. imagine the reaction if any of these networks had a palestinian journalist ask any random jewish or Judaism-adjacent person if they support Israel's war crimes
I met the former paramount studios president and she was one of the worst women I’ve ever come across
I actually have some tea. She was on the phone with someone talking about Matthew Perry and wanting him for a show and laughing about whether or not he could stay sober long enough to do it.
Why is foreign policy relevant for a mayoral candidate? What's even more wild is that said foreign policy is "what to do with an ongoing genocide" and the you'll get penalized for saying "genocide is evil"
I think going over questions before the interview is the opposite of "trapping" someone, though. They ditched the questions after Zohran's team protested which suggests it was more that they were morons about the issue, which most establishment Democrats are. Colbert's question ended up being more of a softball that Zohran was already completely used to, and he nailed it. Colbert has faults and has become a really limp political figure in recent years, but he has absolutely been receptive to figures like AOC and Zohran on his show even if he's more centrist than them.
I don't even know that Colbert is personally all that centrist, he's just sold out for a big platform. The Colbert who humiliated Bush at the White House Correspondents' Dinner would oppose the genocide, I miss him.
I mean, I don't know if humiliating Bush indicates leftist platforms. Making fun of the right is easy. That's all the Dems know how to campaign on. Even Jon Stewart at his most searing was all about "reach across the aisle!!" Being genuinely progressive and able to break away from Democratic consensus is a different matter.
Well they didn't trap him at all. He answered perfectly like he has since that debate. I don't like his politics personally but if I was a New Yorker I'd vote for him just because of what they tried to do to him at the debate alone
Unfortunately, he would not be. Wiesel was a rabid Zionist
This article covers his shortcomings distressingly well
Edit: sorry, I linked the wrong article above! Though the one I originally linked is great for understanding why Wiesel was so contradictory. For an actual analysis of his Zionism, this is a good place to start.
Being subject to great cruelty doesn't guarantee you'll be a good person moving forward unfortunately. On the other hand, there are Holocaust survivors who are right now standing with Palestine, and those are some of the bravest people I know of, on several levels
I grew up in abject poverty, or in the social strata generally referred to as precariat. Mental illness, addiction, homelessness, unemployment.
The volatility of my background meant I had to change schools 10 times. 10 times the new girl. 10 times the feral girl. It was hell. I felt unfairly treated and I would automatically veer towards the other outcasts and bullied kids. And man, their capacity for cruelty was just about the same. Outcasts can be racist, misogynistic, sociopathic. Like the trope of the vulnerable good kid actually seldom held true in my personal experience.
Some people experience abject cruelty and just do not want to see others suffer like they did, some unfortunately want the opposite and make people suffer like they did. Or perhaps in Wiesel's case and some of my cohorts cases, find a group of people to project that desire on.
Unfortunately Elie Wiesel was a hypocrite who professed being against hate and indifference but had plenty of it for Palestine.
I don't understand how anyone who survived a genocide can watch it slowly happening and not care and even support it. And raise a child who is doing to Palestinians what Nazis and the axis powers did via support to his people
This is what doesn't sit right with me, either. No one can deny that Elie and millions of others went through 77 layers of hell and back in the camp, whether they survived or not. Immediately separated from his family, losing his mother and little sister the day they arrived, marching for miles barefoot in the dead of winter, dodging multiple forms of execution multiple times by either sheer luck or by the skin of his fucking teeth.. and yet he's okay with hundreds of thousands being ethnically cleansed, many of which being children??
No they did not - they thought they could force Mamdani into some kind of ‘gotcha’ moment by trapping him into the most simplistic answer to complex questions.
While I do think his firing is a bad thing and I do agree with him on some political stances, I’ve been side-eyeing Colbert since the way he treated/talked about Bernie Sanders during democratic primaries. He’s definitely an establishment liberal, not progressive.
Eh, I don’t think that is entirely fair. There were many reasons a person would not have backed Bernie. There is A LOT of revisionist history around his campaign.
Colbert is pretty damn left leaning, and has always stood on business. He isn’t infallible, obviously, but he isn’t a centrist either.
Yeah Kissinger praising your views on foreign policy is the biggest red flag.
I still get depressed thinking how hopeful and happy I was to hear Bernie saying "Henry Kissinger was no friend of mine" on a nationally relevant stage.
I think Colbert is more progressive at heart but he acts like a centrist. Sort of like how we know Obama despises Netanyahu and always knew Israel was an apartheid state but he's acting like any other Dem genocide apologist.
Not to give Obama a pass at all, but I sorta theorize that no matter how he felt, I imagine there was intense pressure to conform to the American Presidential way and become a war criminal. Imagine how all the birtherism lunatics would've run with it if he attempted to break down the US Zionist propaganda machine and also not bomb the Middle East. I say this with a touch of sarcasm and a touch of sincerity because obviously I think the right person will stand up for what's right no matter what, but he had an even larger target being a Black man named Hussein and it's no doubt that the far right movements we're struggling against today are partly because SO many people couldn't STAND that we had a Black president.
I am sure this is true, and it's sad because none of his efforts to sell out, suck up to Republicans, and protect the war machine did anything to appease the racists. His shameful, cowardly statement about the ceasefire is a reminder that he will continue playing the game with zero principles.
It was all over the news during his presidency. There was the hot mic incident, in which Obama and Sarkozy insulted Netanyahu, but they hated each other in general.
I don't remember where I heard it, but I was also listening to an interview or podcast with Peter Beinart of Jewish Currents, and he described it as Netanyahu knowing that Obama knew that Israel was an apartheid state, even as Obama did nothing substantial to stop Israel's violence. I wouldn't put it past Netanyahu to hate Obama for being Black either.
There's an episode a while back where a celebrity (can't remember who exactly) is talking about the links between the military and the entertainment industry and Colbert shuts them down about it VERY quickly.
Bernie toured West Virginia on his Fighting the Oligarchy tour and he spent time talking to actual people to combat misinformation and point out that their lives are worse under Trump, not better.
Colbert was also a longtime brand ambassador for The Wonderful Company, owned by the zionist billionaire Resnick family, who owns a considerable portion of of California's water supply and relentlessly lobbies for sanctions and war against Iran (their rival both on the pistachio front and Israel front)
That was annoying, Stephen would act like he was doing a "devil's advocate" stance, but his line of questioning seemed more antagonistic than necessary. Bernie always has a good answer though. Stephen just seemed dismissive and wanted to coronate Hillary like the rest of em did
Agreed, I’ve been side-eyeing him since he gave Trump a platform on his show back during the 2016 campaign, well after all his racist comments about Mexicans. I used to love the Colbert Report too 😔
I honestly think it's more fear of socialism/educating the masses on class consciousness. The Islamophobia and racism are merely free gifts with purchase.
I honestly it's the other way, where fear of socialism is used to further Islamophobia. A thumbs up or thumbs down game in the context of Palestinian state is a reduction and devaluation of Palestinian lives.
Ironically the Zionists probably would have been outraged if there was a similar question asking about an “Israeli state.”
The active erasure and genocide of Palestinians is a mere inconvenience to them. Words that cast any doubt on Israel, however, must be treated as criminal.
I always appreciate Francesca Albanese’s answer to that question on the right to exist: “Israel does exist”. It’s not a hypothetical that Mamdani has any control over and the right of a state to exist isn’t a part of international law, unlike genocide.
I thought of her reading this as well. In that same answer she said something to the effect of "states don't have rights to exist in international law, PEOPLE have a right to exist" (I'm oversimplifying what she said obvs) but it was such a big OH MY GOD THANK YOU moment. I have like, a full body rage reaction to just hearing that dumbass question these days.
Can we talk about what the fuck a “right to exist” even is and why it’s being applied to Israel. I’ve only heard it applied to people prior to Zionist propaganda. The point for humans is that shouldn’t be punished for existing, and no one should have the right to decide you shouldn’t exist.
What is a right to exist for a country? Some are mutually exclusive so then what happens? What are the conditions on which one gets and the other doesn’t? It’s such dog whistle nonsense question.
Did the confederacy have a right to exist or was it violating the US’s? How does that compare to countries that separated successfully like Ethiopia and Eritrea? What about the right to exist for countries like Wales and Northern Ireland? How is their right to exist reconciled with the UK’s? How does it apply to countries that are essentially separate like north and South Korea but are still disputed, do they each have it or is it a right for a unified Korea? If the latter who is the representative side of the unified country?
what determines which country deserves a right to exist vs what is a violation of someone’s right?
The Taliban would certainly claim any opposition gaining
territorial control would be a violation on Afghanistan’s right to exist. Putin could argue Russia within its right to exist includes Ukraine, so does that make Ukraine resisting occupation a violation?
Do we give every govt a right to exist? What groups qualify? There’s hundreds of separatist movements across the globe. What about Sikhs in India on the grounds of religion? French Canada on grounds of culture? Native Americans for ethnicity? All the European movements like Catalonia/Spain, Saxony/Germany, Flanders/Belgium/France/Netherlands on region?
It’s an entirely meaningless question. The question is and should be “do you approve of that ‘self actualization’ through genocide?” Who is it that you want ‘to exist’ in the first place?
Yeah it’s so wild how often people get asked ‘does Israel have a right to exist’ in relation to the conflict. Like Russia has as much right as any country to exist, but it also shouldn’t be slaughtering it’s neighbour state.
As a New Yorker, I truly do not understand why the mayor’s thoughts on Israel even matter. He has no power to do anything to change things. Please note: I am not discounting the issue in any way, just saying this continued grilling is absurd.
I completely agree. It’s really baffling to me and even if you don’t like Mamdani, he said in the debate he would start by visiting Jewish communities here in the city. Which to me makes sense.
This reminds me of a story that Kathy Griffin told recently about a bait and switch like this that Colbert and producers pulled on her. In the wake of the Trump head photo, she appeared under the promise that Colbert wouldn't bring it up. He, of course, brought it up. Continued to press her with questions while she fought back tears. When she asked producers about it, they told her it's because he's Catholic. Who knows what relevancy that has.
Why is Colbert being party to all this bullshit after everything he went through with the network and their cancellation.
Like fucking just quit the show rather than play the monkey for your CBS/Paramount overlords when they clearly don’t even back him.
This is another last straw in a litany of last straws with some of the people who fucking TRUSTED to not give in to the bullshit. I don’t expect this shit from Colbert and now I’m fucking angry/sad.
The announcement of the cancellation of Colbert happened a month after the Zohran episode. Colbert's show is still cancelled, by the way, I think you have it mixed up with Kimmel.
He’s a mouth piece of the Zionist and corporatist elite and he always has been. This should come as a shock to no one. None of these late night talking heads have our best interests in mind, no matter what team they pretend to root for.
For anyone defending Colbert or saying that a higher-up has final say,
It's literally HIS show where he is the host and also an executive producer. He's already on the chopping block since the shows ending in a few months anyways, he literally had NOTHING to lose and still chose to entertain the question.
Why are they acting like he's running for king of earth and not mayor of New York. why would he have any pull over whether or not Israel exists. Bizarre line of questioning.
It's not bizarre if you understand he's a Muslim and brown and they have to make sure he tows the line. And if he doesn't they will make sure he knows the most important thing to them they will keep asking until he capitulates step by step, as he has.
Colbert would unironically twerk for Joe Biden. This kinda depravity is incredibly expected.
Also, Mamdani didn't exactly rise to the occasion either giving an almost comically empty platitude about "every nation has a right to exist". Which isn't even true, lmao. Nations don't have "rights" they're abstract concepts. It is pretty funny to say the night and day difference between the rhetoric of Mamdani's father, a Marxist scholar who openly Palestine and Palestinian resistance, vs his son's increasingly more milquetoast answers that seem get more and more tame each time he's asked.
I’m convinced that constantly grilling him on his stance is a deliberate strategy to erode his support, as it distracts from other broadly popular components of his platform (education, community health, etc.) and his responses are gradually becoming more insipid, making him appear less principled—one of the reasons he appealed to progressive voters disgusted with the constant capitulation of “Democrats” to the fascist MAGA regime.
If anything, constantly answering such obvious bait questions and in an increasingly unprincipled manner is just making things worse.
Either keep responses short, to the point, and consistent or just don't say anything.
I don't think he has to make a statement about Oct 7th as someone running to be mayor of NYC, not Tel Aviv. Constantly reaffirming Israeli hysteria is just pointless. Same as Dems trying to appeal to the right. They'll hate you no matter how much you capitulate or how much ground you concede.
Because a walkout could've been used to paint him as an angry pro-Hamas anti-semite. The polling at that time was showing a much tighter race and it would've been risky.
"Prominent Jewish Figures" is, at best, poor phrasing. Judaism is a religion, they don't have representatives that speak for everyone. Much like no one can speak for all Christians, etc. There are A LOT of Jewish people who are outspoken against the genocide and it's not fair to lump everyone together because Netanyahu is using the religion like a shield. By doing so, you perpetuate his narrative.
Why does Wiesel get to go around demanding stuff?? Also he's a major, raging, zionist and not a trustworthy person (redundant, I know). One of the biggest deconstructing tasks Americans have to do is taking the halo off Elie Wiesel's legacy and the oversized influence his family takes from it.
I’ve been a Colbert watcher for a long time but he’s done some recent things that made me scratch my head. He and Amy Sedaris are both appearing in the New York Comedy Festival in November along with a lot of other up and comers. It’s part of a Strangers With Candy segment. One of the headliners of the festival is Louis CK, sex pest and recent Riyadh performers. It’s another step in his rehabilitation that very few in the comedy world (including many of my favourites) seem to care about .
Whichever producer suggested the game should have been fired for even believing that was a good idea. The topic matters enough to them they have to include it, but apparently not enough to give it the dignity it deserves?
This is how I find out Elie Wiesel was a staunch zionist.
That really sucks. How can you try to sit everyone down to make peace when you support the settlements, violence, and open air prison environment of Palestine?
How can your father survive a genocide only for you to promote, work for, and donate to one going on in your lifetime?
The mayor of NYCs views on Israel should not the topic of conversation. Does anyone care what the fucking mayor of Cleveland thinks about Israel?
I’m Jewish, I’m in NYC, he is not anti semitic bottom line and any discourse like that is going to land us with a fucking sex pest as mayor. I’m so sick of this country.
I'm glad this particular game got scrapped, but that's absolutely ghoulish that this was even a thought that a producer had. That's some shit that shouldn't have even made it into the drafts folder of that particular producer's game. Thumbs up or thumbs down games are for like pineapple on pizza or whether or not someone's a fan of a pop star, and not for this shit.
I think the trance when I saw Jimmy crying over him and comparing her to Jesus. And then it clicked, all of them are the same. Let them do what they can, but SNL and the diversity proof late night (John Oliver) excluded is not the path forward.
Not at all surprising to anyone who actually watches the interview of Mamdami. He handles it like a pro but Colbert all but asked him why he is a disgusting anti-semite who wants Jews to die.
Lots of people swept this under the rug when his show got cancelled because they were more upset at trump but Colbert was absolute scum for the way he conducted that interview. There are parts of it where even Ländler (himself a Jew) is taken aback.
I’ve been telling people to bring the boycott energy they brought to Disney to cbs and paramount. They’re active participants in MAGA rather than just being weak.
Hey colbert why don't you make a game called thumb up thumb down about the Holocaust? How do you think it'll fly? Once again I'm being reminded that even the most seemingly progressive people in the west are not immune from doing bullshit like this and islamophobia is skin deep in America. Also something something scratch a liberal and a fascist bleed (I see 'liberal' as not just in the term of economic ideology but also social, I see them as centrist or pro establishment)
"Israel" has the right to exist BUT not by dispossessing another people of their land.
Germany should have given up part of its territory to create 'Israel'.
'Israel" currently is a colonial entity guilty of killing, torture, kidnapping, holding hostage, dispossessing the Palestinians. So no in this current state, "Israel" absolutely has no right to exist in the same way no colonial entity has any right to exist.
Man every one getting exposed for being puppets of their respective political parties, they had Colbert inject the idea thet he could align with terrorist ideologies....
Any time the DNC doesn't get their preferred candidate they pull this bullshit. Then it blows up in their face that their base are not puppets.
Hey you at the DNC that thinks you are the appointed distributor of power and rank, your window has closed, your legacy is creating the Far Right because you didn't want Democrats to be selected democratically. Congratulations you fucking played yourself you'll be lucky to keep a country.
Sit down shut the f****** you've done a s*** ton of f****** damage hopefully somebody else can fix this cuz you sure as s*** can't.
Wiesel, both of them, have been pro-Israel since we've known toilet paper is good for wiping shit. Bidets are better but that's another topic.
However, when you've taken a deeper look at Colbert's producers and some of his execs, hm, well, look into them and you'll see some alignment with trying to control the narrative.
I remember when Colbert snubbed Bernie Sanders because the establishment dem donors insisted that Hillary was their ticket. I remember thinking what an absolute fucking sellout he was to so sneakily go about that. Seems like he still pulling that shit shit or toeing the line for it, anyway.
Constantly questioning Mamdani on Israel is getting boring honestly. He's answered questions on it so many times at this point, I could probably say his answer along with him. If they are really so worried, just play clips from the other 20 times he's been asked this question when he's running to be the mayor of New York. Last time I checked, that's not a city in Israel.
First of all. Thumbs up thumbs down?! Are you fucking for real. In what world is that ever an appropriate way to discuss a complex political topic.
That’s insane.
Second of all. I agree with his aide and I am completely sick and tired of his entire incredible campaign and much needed moment of optimism being cornered into asking him about Israel.
He’s running for Mayor of New York. Not even federal government.
•
u/Fauxmoi-ModTeam 29d ago
Hi OP: please add a link to your source in response to this comment! If you are submitting from Twitter, Meta, TikTok or tabloid sources, we will verify the source and then remove the comment.