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Only Debate Question on Middle East War 'Encapsulates What Is Wrong With US Media Coverage'
The Council on American–Islamic Relations said the question was "reckless and biased" and "sounded like it could have written by AIPAC, not CBS."
Oct 02, 2024
Foreign policy experts and civil rights groups criticized CBS News' moderators following Monday night's vice presidential debate for asking only one narrowly framed question about conflict in the Middle East.
Co-moderator Margaret Brennan, the network's chief foreign affairs correspondent, opened the debate by stating that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within a week or two and asking if the two vice presidential candidates would support a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran.
"Wait. What?" Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a senior adviser for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank, wrote in response to the question.
Vlahos expressed disbelief that "after nearly 12 months of war in Gaza, more than 40,000 dead—mostly civilians—a spiraling humanitarian crisis, hostages dead or still in captivity, Hezbollah and Hamas leaders assassinated, a new war in Lebanon where 1 million people may be displaced, charges of genocide, and a cease-fire endlessly elusive," this was the question CBS had chosen.
Peter Beinart, an editor at Jewish Currents and professor of journalism at the City University of New York, argued that the question should have focused on how to stop a regional war, writing on social media that CBS's framing "pretty much encapsulates what is wrong with U.S. media coverage of this conflict."
The Council on American–Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, said the question was "reckless and biased" and "sounded like it could have written by [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee], not CBS."
Tonight's vice president debate opened with a reckless and biased question about bombing Iran that sounded like it could have written by AIPAC, not CBS. Our soldiers and taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be wasted on another futile war in the Middle East that ends with more blood on our… pic.twitter.com/jyOmgsBbm1
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) October 2, 2024
The debate took place on the same day that Iran fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. Iran said the strikes were retaliation for recent Israeli assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. The strikes followed Israel's launch of a ground incursion into southern Lebanon. Israeli and U.S. forces intercepted the vast majority of the missiles, which were targeted at military facilities.
Vlahos suggested that focusing on the Iran threat was a way of avoiding larger questions—that Brennan's narrow framing was intentional.
"If the CBS moderators wanted to avoid talking frankly about the aforementioned issues which might mean—here it comes—raising criticism of Israel, this was the way to do it," she wrote. "Make it all about Iran."
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential candidate, said that he would defer to Israel.
"We should support our allies wherever they are when they're fighting the bad guys," he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, didn't directly answer the preemptive strike question but immediately invoked the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas and said Israel had the "absolutely fundamental" right to defend itself.
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Youth Arrested Demanding VP Debate Question on Climate Emergency
The Sunrise Movement wants CBS moderator Norah O'Donnell to ask Republican JD Vance "if his prayers outweigh the millions he takes from Big Oil to deny the climate crisis."
Oct 01, 2024
Just hours away from the U.S. vice presidential debate on Tuesday, six members of the youth-led Sunrise Movement were arrested for blocking the street outside CBS News headquarters in New York City to demand moderator Norah O'Donnell ask both candidates what they would do to take on the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
The sit-in and blockade came as the death toll from Hurricane Helene, which left a path of destruction across several southeastern states, hit at least 137. Sunrise has responded to the Category 4 storm with renewed calls to hold fossil fuel giants accountable.
"In North Carolina, I have watched buildings in my hometown be submerged in water, have seen entire towns washed away, trees and power lines covering the streets, people asking for help finding their loved ones, and friends reaching out for aid after losing their homes and livelihoods," Talia Wilson of Asheville said in a Sunrise statement.
"Norah O'Donnell has a huge responsibility to require JD Vance to have a real conversation about the climate crisis on national TV."
Wilson took aim at the Republican ticket of former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who will face his Democratic counterpart, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in Tuesday night's debate.
"It couldn't be clearer that we need to act. Big Oil has known for years that its actions would cause disasters like these, but JD Vance and Donald Trump keep promising Big Oil power in exchange for campaign contributions," the 18-year-old campaigner said. "I know my friends and neighbors want to hear from both candidates on how they plan to address the climate crisis and work to prevent even worse disasters from striking our communities in the future."
Sunrise's Jordan Reif said that "my mom sent me pictures from our family in Georgia. Hurricane Helene destroyed roads, yards, and homes. There was damage like we had never seen before."
"The climate crisis is worsening and climate denier politicians like JD Vance are selling out our communities for donations from Big Oil," the 24-year-old added. "CBS News and the media must report Hurricane Helene for what it is—Big Oil's greed destroying our communities."
Sunrise is circulating a petition that notes Big Oil-backed Vance's response to the death and devastation. In a Saturday social media post, the Republican said, "Please say a prayer for everyone affected by the storms."
The petition says, "Sign this letter to demand that CBS News anchor and vice presidential debate moderator Norah O'Donnell add a question to Tuesday's debate asking JD Vance if his prayers outweigh the millions he takes from Big Oil to deny the climate crisis."
The group's letter to O'Donnell highlights Politico's recent reporting that "Vance changed his tune on climate change. Oil cash flowed." As the news outlet detailed:
As recently as 2020, [Vance] spoke at Ohio State University about society's "climate problem" and said using natural gas as a power source "isn't exactly the sort of thing that's gonna take us to a clean energy future."
Vance's climate and energy views took a 180 once he was running for the Senate. The oil and gas industry spent more than $283,000 on Vance's 2022 campaign—more than they gave to all but 18 other members of Congress, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.
Trump's selection of Vance as his VP candidate alarmed green groups that are overwhelmingly backing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz, given the Republican ex-president's pledge to roll back Biden-Harris administration climate policies if Big Oil pours just $1 billion into his campaign, and research showing planet-heating pollution would soar if he returned to the White House.
"Donald Trump and JD Vance are responding to the unimaginable devastation of Helene by tweeting prayers and by doubling down on their climate denial. That's wholly unacceptable," said Sunrise communications director Stevie O'Hanlon, whose group is working to mobilize 1.5 million swing state voters in support of Harris.
"Scientists have been extremely clear: Climate change made Helene stronger and more deadly, and if we don't urgently act, storms like this will become the new normal," O'Hanlon added. "Norah O'Donnell has a huge responsibility to require JD Vance to have a real conversation about the climate crisis on national TV."
The 90-minute debate is set to begin at 9:00 pm ET on Tuesday, airing on the CBS broadcast television station and streaming for free on CBSNews.com, the CBS News TV and smartphone applications, Paramount+, and YouTube.
This post has been updated with additional details from the protest shared after the arrests.
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Jane Fonda on US Election: 'The Future of the Planet Is at Stake'
Republican nominee Donald Trump "wants to do away with all regulations and open up the floodgates for the fossil fuel industry and the nuclear industry," she said. "So the choice is very clear."
Sep 23, 2024
Actor and activist Jane Fonda took aim at Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and his climate-wrecking plans in comments published Monday from her wide-ranging conversation with CBS News, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone.
The interview with Fonda, which took place in California earlier this month, was coordinated by Covering Climate Now and is set to air on "CBS Saturday Morning" on September 28. It comes as she travels the country to support climate champions including Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats taking on Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election.
Trump "invited all the CEOs of the fossil fuel industry to Mar-a-Lago" and promised to roll back the Biden administration's progress on the climate crisis for just $1 billion in campaign cash, Fonda highlighted, warning that "the future of the planet is at stake."
"This is a collective crisis, and it requires a collective solution," she continued. "[Trump] wants to do away with all regulations and open up the floodgates for the fossil fuel industry and the nuclear industry. So the choice is very clear, do we vote for the future, or do we vote for burning up the planet?"
"We have the solution to the climate crisis, why don't we employ it, instead of allowing a bunch of rich people to destroy everything that's been created by humankind?"
The longtime activist, who is taking time off from acting to focus on this year's elections, acknowledged that some voters who lean toward Democrats, particularly younger people, are angry with Harris, especially over U.S. support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip. However, she argued, "to sit this out or to vote for a third-party candidate, is to allow fascism."
"That will elect somebody who will deny you any voice in the future of the United States," Fonda stressed. "Vote for a voice if you really care about Gaza, vote to have a voice so that you can do something about it, and then be ready to turn out into the streets by the millions and fight for it… If the young people stay home, we're going to lose."
"Every candidate has issues. Nobody's perfect, but the Harris-Walz ticket is the ticket that will allow us to fight, to get the solutions that climate scientists are saying we need," she said. "They give us a chance, at least, to fight. They give us a platform on which we can try to pressure."
In addition to backing the Democratic presidential ticket—including by knocking on doors in Michigan, a key swing state—the 86-year-old is working to elect candidates endorsed by the Jane Fonda Climate Political Action Committee (PAC), which she founded in 2022, after she was arrested five times during Fire Drill Fridays, a protest series she started with Greenpeace USA a few years earlier.
The PAC is now supporting over 100 candidates at the local level, "where the really robust work is being done on climate," according to Fonda. The group only endorses candidates who don't take money from the fossil fuel industry, which she said has a "stranglehold over our government."
"We've had so many moderate Democrats that blocked the climate solutions we need because they take money from the fossil fuel industry," she noted. "It's very hard to stand up to the people that are supporting your candidacy."
"We are being killed with cancer, heart diseases, because of the burning of fossil fuel," Fonda said. "We have the solution to the climate crisis, why don't we employ it, instead of allowing a bunch of rich people to destroy everything that's been created by humankind? We've got to rise up."
"You need millions of people in the streets," she said, also emphasizing that "you need people in the halls of power with ears and a heart to hear the protests, to hear the demands."
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