(NewsNation) — Jewish students at Cooper Union College in New York City had to lock themselves inside a New York City library Wednesday as anti-Israeli protesters blocked the doors, according to multiple reports.
Video posted on social media showed the students in the library as a crowd of protesters pounded on the doors.
The incident occurred as hate crimes against Jews were at the highest level ever nationwide before the war even began, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“On Balance” host Leland Vittert said the story was nowhere to be found on the websites of the mainstream media.
Colby Hall, NewsNation media contributor and founding editor of political media website Mediaite.com, joined “On Balance With Leland Vittert” to discuss the incident, saying the story “is alarming and terrifying and should get attention.”
“It’s in this sort of story the media loves to search for nuance and ignores the very terrifying and alarming nature of the story itself,” he said. “There are students that were literally barricading themselves for fear of an angry pro-Palestinian mob.”
Vittert stressed a discrepancy in coverage, saying, “If during George Floyd, these were Black students locked inside a library with white students outside with hoods banging to get in. It would lead every newscast.”
Vittert said it’s the media’s responsibility to call things what they are, not what people self-identify as.
“That seems to only apply when people are marching against Jews,” he said. “And I just don’t get it.”
The FBI recently released its annual hate crime data, with hate crimes against Jews and Muslims experiencing triple-digit rises. In New Jersey, antisemitism has spiked and anti-Islamic crimes also ticked up.
Hall suggested the lack of coverage of the story was “being kind to a progressive point of view.”
“This is a challenging story,” he said. “And what we’re seeing, and the real fault here in the media, is a lack of moral clarity. There’s this sort of knee-jerk reaction to go to nuance and context, when in fact, there’s no nuance or context to defend the sort of terrorists and atrocities that occurred on October 7.”
“I think the way that it’s been covered has done a real disservice to peace and safety for Jews around the world,” he added.
This comes as several of the world’s biggest news organizations walked back initial reporting on a deadly hospital explosion in Gaza. The organizations first reported claims from the Hamas-run Palestinian government, which assigned fault for the explosion to Israel.
“The way that the bombing of the hospital was wrongly reported did a lot of harm and damage,” Hall said. “And I still think we’re seeing the repercussions of that.”
Vittert questioned why these organizations were quick to point a finger at Israel, and not Hamas, Egypt or Jordan.
“What I think the largest crime here that we see is the reporting of statements put out by the Gaza Health Ministry,” Hall said. “You can report on what’s being put out there. But if you don’t also hedge and … report that they are representative of the mouthpiece, the house organ of a terrorist organization, then you are unwittingly putting on the propaganda in favor of that terrorist organization.”