Ryan Girdusky clashed with British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan on Monday night.
CNN has banned a conservative commentator from appearing on the network again after he told a Muslim journalist “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” an apparent reference to the spate of exploding pagers in Lebanon that killed members of the Hezbollah militant group last month.
Ryan Girdusky made the comment during a heated debate with Mehdi Hasan, a prominent British-American broadcaster and an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, on “CNN Newsnight” with host Abby Phillip.
The guests were discussing the racist jokes made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, which overshadowed former President Donald Trump’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday and continue to make headlines two days later.
As the debate turned fractious, Girdusky and Hasan sparred over whether the latter had been labeled an anti-Semite. “I’m a supporter of the Palestinians, I’m used to it,” Hasan said.
Girdusky replied: “Well I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”
Basically telling someone who’s Arab, “I hope you die” in the most racist way possible.
This hate is brought to you by Israel.
He hoped the beeper didn’t go off though, isn’t that the opposite of “I hope you die”?
Still not a good thing to say. Even if one were to believe him that it was a joke, it would still be pretty horrendous
It’s like if they were in the context of black folks being hanged, and he said to a black guest: “I hope they run out of rope for you”.
Like yeah, they’re technically saying they hope his life is spared, but only through a mistake.
It’s even a little bit worse than that. Here’s a quick Youtube video with, I think, just enough context.
It’s quick and glib and is structured like a bit of political wit, but he’s pretty earnestly comparing Hasan to Hamas/Hezbollah and the “joke” is more about his comic persona (to the extent you develop one in the three seconds of buildup to being Mr. Funny on a news panel show) hoping that he and the entire table don’t get blown up by Hasan’s beeper during the show. I didn’t get any subtext or subtle implication that Hasan should be spared, except for duration of the oh-so-funny Gidursky being in the blast radius.
It’s the sort of thing that somebody might feel safe saying on CNN if, in other environments, they’d be perfectly happy wishing death on people who oppose the war. A cheap shot from a racist asshole.
Yeah, just like how my dad was sincere when he told me “I hope you dont get AIDS” while kicking me out the house after i came out
True. Also unrelated: I hope you and your family don’t die in a car crash.
