Good Riddance to Mehdi Hasan

By Becket Adams

Sunday, January 14, 2024

 

MSNBC has bid farewell to yet another anchor whose penchant for insipid demagoguery far outstrips any actual talent.

 

Mehdi Hasan, who slanders conservatives nearly as much as he slanders “Zionists” (wink, wink), announced last week his intention to quit MSNBC. The news came not long after the network axed his weekend show that nobody watched.

 

“With this show going away,” Hasan told those who happened to tune in that evening, “I’ve decided that it’s time for me to look for a new challenge.”

 

Attracting viewers seemed plenty enough of a challenge, but okay.

 

MSNBC last November announced a weekend reshuffling, citing as chief among its reasons the looming 2024 presidential election. And among those to get the cut was none other than the British-born Al Jazeera English and Intercept alumnus. In response to the news, a member of the House of Representatives famous for her antisemitic remarks demanded that the network reverse its decision, suggesting that Hasan’s loss of his show, which launched in 2021, was somehow an affront to “free expression.”

 

“Mehdi is one of the most brilliant and most prominent Muslim journalists in the U.S.,” said Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar. “It is deeply troubling that MSNBC is canceling his show amid a rampant rise of anti-Muslim bigotry and suppression of Muslim voices. Anyone who cares about free expression should be concerned.”

 

At the time of the reshuffling announcement, MSNBC noted its intention to keep Hasan on as an analyst and fill-in host. His time slot was given to fellow host Ayman Mohyeldin, an Egyptian-born Muslim who is, like Hasan, sharply critical of Israel.

 

What, then, is Omar on about?

 

Could it be that maybe, just maybe, MSNBC didn’t cut Hasan because of his politics or because he’s a Muslim but because his show “regularly came in third place among the 25-to-54 demographic most valued by advertisers,” according to the Washington Post?

 

Look, here’s the real problem with Hasan: He is not a good television presenter. He never has been, even when he was with Al Jazeera English. He hasn’t the presence. He hasn’t the wit. He hasn’t the charisma. The proof is reflected in his ratings.

 

Moreover, while at MSNBC, Hasan suffered from the fact that he had nothing original to say. He didn’t distinguish himself from the more famous hosts, including Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow. He didn’t stake out any unique or novel position, anything to set himself apart from his colleagues.

 

Now, couple this with the fact that he has all the personal charm of cold oatmeal, and it’s no wonder that his show failed to find an audience.

 

The upside to his sudden departure from MSNBC is that the pantheon of partisan cable-news personalities has improved, if only by just a little bit, thus boosting the overall quality of our national discourse. Indeed, for the regrettable few years that Hasan had a show on MSNBC, he did little but add to the already unscalable mountain of media misinformation and propaganda — and not very well, either.

 

Hasan is the guy who once argued with a straight face that it’s a “classic racist dog whistle” to point out that Chicago is the murder capital of the United States, adding that “white people kill other white people at almost the same rate black people kill other black people.” First, the latter part isn’t even remotely true. Second, in 2022, Chicago was indeed the murder capital of the country. It has held this distinction for many years. Shame on you for noticing.

 

Or remember that Hasan not only helped shout down the now-vindicated Covid-19 lab-leak theory but claims now that he was justified in doing so because the theory had the support of the “wrong” kind of people.

 

“The simple reason why so many people weren’t keen to discuss the ‘lab leak’ theory is because it was originally conflated by the Right with ‘Chinese bioweapon’ conspiracies and continues to be conflated by the Right with anti-Fauci conspiracies,” he complained. “Blame the conspiracy theorists.”

 

Well, at least he’s honest that he’s a bad-faith actor, motivated entirely by political allegiances.

 

Then, of course, there was the time that Hasan falsely claimed that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza. Or the time that he claimed very stupidly that Florida is the “don’t say gay” and “don’t say black” state. And let’s not forget the time he trotted out a self-described “video game” and “screen time” expert to argue that the Covid school closures did not actually lead to learning loss (they did).

 

The list goes on and on, but you get the picture.

 

As with the untimely departures of similarly vicious and talentless cable-news hacks, Hasan’s abrupt exit from MSNBC will cause not a single tear to be shed.