EXPOSED! Genocidal 'Bloody' Blinken Confronted By Two Brave Journalists!
"You're either on the side of the good or the bad."-- Katie Halper
In a time of staggering corruption, complicity and state-sponsored murder of innocents, it is important to recognize those who speak up.
Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (1/16/25)
In an era of cowardly corporate media compliance and obsequious deference to power, two journalists stood up today to corrupt power. During a farewell press event at the State Department, Sec. of State Tony Blinken was interrupted by Grayzone journalist and experienced Middle East reporter Max Blumenthal and then, minutes later, Jordanian-Palestinian journalist Sam Husseini. Both challenged Blinken’s role in the US/Israel Gaza genocide.
Blumenthal was escorted out of the room. Husseini was carried out by a trio of burly security guards.
When Blinken arrived as Secretary of State to meet with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas raid, he noted not that he was there as a representative of the government or the people of the United States, but rather: “I am here as a Jew.”
Blinken’s family is intricately woven into the history of the founding of Israel and empowering of Zionist interests and ideology. Blumenthal details that history in the video links below.
After 15 shameful months of Biden administration complicity, funding, arming, assisting and running diplomatic cover for the ghastly genocide in Gaza, it was powerful to see two journalists call out the crimes to the face of one of the chief criminals. They said directly to Blinken the obvious reality most American media has been tip-toeing around: that he is responsible for genocide.
That he is a war criminal and he should be on trial in the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Betrayal
As a one-time print journalist and editorial cartoonist, the passive heads-down posture of the other journalists in the press room was all too familiar. Truly, most journalists are meek and obedient stenographers to power and mere bookkeepers of corruption.
With our First Amendment rights, the press was conceived of by the founders of this government as the Fourth Branch of government, tasked with the responsibility of holding the other three branches to account. With that freedom comes responsibility. To say the least — given the wholesale corporate purchase of the government, our endless wars and full-on participation in genocide — the corporatized media has failed. It has failed for decades, which means they have directly failed you and me.
They have betrayed us.
When I was a journalist I was very aware that though my paycheck came from the publisher, I didn’t work for the publisher. I worked for the readers. I said that once to my head editor as we were debating his decision to block a political cartoon of mine from being published. I could see that a part of him — buried in some deep layer of early idealism far beneath the corporate crap — agreed with me, but the cartoon remained blocked from publication.
When Max and Sam spoke up today, they were speaking not for themselves, but for us. And the innocents of Gaza; all the dead and maimed children torn apart by our bombs. And when most of the reporters in that room looked away, looked down at their hands and remained silent, they abandoned us. They abandoned the children of Gaza.
In a time of staggering corruption, complicity and state-sponsored murder of innocents, it is important to recognize those who speak up.
Resist
Persist
Don’t be complicit
JOURNALIST MAX BLUMENTHAL CALLS OUT COWARDLY WAR CRIMINAL TONY BLINKEN!
Judging Freedom (1/16/25)
27-minute video
TOTALLY CRINGE: Incompetent Or Deceptive? CNN Coverage Of Blinken Press Coverage Protest
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to scroll down through viewer comments, especially regarding the ‘cringeworthy’ comments. — M. Taylor]
CNN (1/16/25)
6-minute video
EXCELLENT VIDEO: Journalist Sam Husseini On Getting MANHANDLED For Asking Blinken Questions
"You're either on the side of the good or the bad." — Katie Halper
By Katie Halper
Useful Idiots (1/16/25)
Jordanian-Palestinian journalist Sam Husseini reacts to being physically assaulted for daring to ask Secretary of State Antony Blinken questions. Sam Husseini is an independent journalist currently writing at husseini.substack.com. Husseini has also written for a variety of publications, including CounterPunch, The Nation, The Washington Post, USA Today and Salon.
He has written extensively about Palestine and international law. Last year he repeatedly wrote about the possibility of a country invoking the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Husseini regularly attends State Department briefings, asking tough questions. Husseini is founder of VotePact.org, which encourages left-right cooperation to undermine the establishment duopoly. He is also a visual artist.
1-hour, 7-minute video
THE GRAYZONE: Max Blumenthal On Confronting War Criminal Tony Blinken
The Grayzone (1/16/25)
Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss the Gaza ceasefire deal, the real history of US and Israeli obstructionism, and efforts to hold the authors of Gaza's destruction accountable - including Blumenthal's questioning of Tony Blinken at the Secretary of State's final presser.
Who Is Journalist Sam Husseini?
Newsweek (1/16/25)
…[Sam Husseini] is a Jordanian-Palestinian writer and the communications director at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Husseini has reposted various videos "holding Blinken and this administration accountable" to his account on X, formerly Twitter.
A video of the incident shows Husseini saying he was told that State Department spokesman Matthew Miller would "not explicitly answer my questions."
"I am justified in what I'm doing," Husseini said as officers grabbed his arms and pulled him to stand from his chair. Husseini grabs onto the edge of the table where he has a notebook, phone and computer.
Husseini repeated "Get your hands off me" multiple times and told Blinken to answer his "damn question."
"I was sitting here quietly and now I'm being manhandled by two, three people," Husseini said. "You pontificate about a free press. You are hurting me."
This was not the first time Husseini had gotten angry with the State Department. In June of last year, he asked about a "Hannibal directive," to which Miller said he was "not familiar in any way with either that supposed directive or those reports."
Husseini interrupted Miller and repeatedly asked, "You've never heard of the Hannibal directive?" as Miller moved on to the next question.
In 2011, the executive director of the National Press Club suspended Husseini for asking the Saudi ambassador to the United States questions that were "loaded statements."
He also was removed in 2018 from a summit press conference between Russia and the United States before then-President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin arrived. Husseini was holding a sign that read "Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty."
The other reporter was Max Blumenthal, the editor of The Grayzone News, who asked Blinken, "Why did you allow my friends to be massacred?"
A woman approached Blumenthal and said, "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to ask you to leave." Blumenthal got up and started to approach Blinken. The woman ushered him out.
Max Blumenthal, the editor of The Grayzone News, on X: "Sam Husseini is a national treasure. Before a national audience, with three massive secret service cops dragging him out, and Blinken ordering him to "respect the process," Sam manages to mention Israel's secret nukes and cites the ICJ and Amnesty on its policy of extermination."
"Most journalists are meek and obedient stenographers to power and mere bookkeepers of corruption."
And we saw them in that room with Sam and Max, didn't we? Has anyone got a list of the names of the journalists and their media outlets who were present at that press conference who kept their heads down and didn't challenge Blinken on his lies? I'd love to start a boycott of all their postings and outlets. Hitting them in the wallet is the only way to get through their bootlicking heads that We the People don't care for their cooperation with genocide.
Excellent comments on the cnn feed thanks for the heads up to check them out. So the mainstream knows, they just keep their heads down and lie on behalf of the genocide hoping for decorum in the press box of democracy!