Campus protests. Police arrests. The 2024 presidential campaign. This week’s ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ has it all - plus, a strong rebuke of the media’s latest failings on the Israel-Iran escalation.
Our main guest…
Mehdi sat down in the studio with independent presidential candidate Cornel West to talk about many things, but the two had a particularly lively exchange on the question plaguing many progressive voters this election year: If not voting for Joe Biden leads to Donald Trump - and thus, a dangerous path for American democracy - is that a price worth paying for holding Biden accountable for his complicity on Gaza?
“You know, I would say if we have to choose between Trump leading us toward a second civil war and Biden leading us toward the third World War, that's a choice I refuse, brother,” West said.
“But it's a choice you made in 2020.” Mehdi said. “You said in November 2020, when asked why you voted for Biden, ‘what we got to vote for was the mediocre, milquetoast, neoliberal centrist because he's better than fascism’.”
Have a listen to see how West responded and what he had to say about Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gaza, and more.
On campus protests…
Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, a contributor at Zeteo, discussed what’s been happening at Columbia University. As an alumna of Barnard College at Columbia, Nixon has been deeply troubled:
“If you believe in democracy, you have to believe in protest,” she told Mehdi. “You really can't have one without the other.”
Nixon went on to talk about two of her children, who are Jewish, and the dangerous and inaccurate conflation of pro-Palestine protests with antisemitism.
On Iran and Israel…
You’ve probably seen the coverage of the recent back-and-forth retaliatory attacks between Iran and Israel. As Mehdi points out in this week’s opening monologue, there’s been a complete absence of historical and political context from our media when it comes to characterizing Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel (but not so much, the other way around). The story rarely starts with the headline.
As Mehdi puts it, the media failure in presenting the important content is disingenuous and irresponsible. “If you don’t have context, you find yourself being lied to, being duped and deceived, and then sleepwalking into World War 3.”
Watch the explainer for more on what the media gets wrong on Iran.
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“We Call for Revolution”: Cornel West Defends His Independent Presidential Bid - Mehdi Unfiltered