It is hard not to get the impression from two recent TV broadcasts that the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has something to do with a new law in Ohio. The new law, signed into effect by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, guarantees college students three days off each semester as well as accommodations for religious holidays, or as NBC affiliate WCMH news anchor Colleen Marshall puts it:
The law is about ensuring every student has the opportunity to practice their faith.
From there, the broadcast is turned over to reporter Cierra Johnson, who tells us that she spoke to a recent college grad who told her this new law is a step forward in accepting Ohio’s growing diversity. The college grad with whom she spoke is Shereen Shabaan, a former CAIR intern. Shabaan said:
You can imagine how difficult it would be not eating or drinking all day, and then taking a really big final. It was always a hassle because sometimes professors they are picky because they have rules they have to abide by and like for just to make sure like no cheating happens no like timing those was just very tricky.
Then it was the turn of CAIR-Ohio’s Outreach Director Amina Barhumi, who had been waiting in the wings:
What this legislation does, or should be doing, is ensuring that colleges have clear policies to students where they understand that this is their right and they have the ability to take those days off without repercussions.
A different network affiliate, WJW FOX8, picked up this story and ran exactly the same B-roll. In fact, WJW ended its news segment with a close-up of CAIR’s sign in front of their Ohio office.
In both reports there is no justification or explanation for why the TV stations gave CAIR as much attention as they gave to the new Ohio legislation itself. It is this kind of thing that gives the appearance of sponsored content.
Why else are there so many junk news broadcasts featuring CAIR? Why are there CAIR broadcasts about fingers, Pizza Hut, the Hmong people, Confederate flags, Civil War monuments, Black Lives Matter, the 1619 Project, the Atlanta spa shootings, the Capitol riots, Derek Chauvin, white people, Jewish misfortunes, Facebook comments, the KKK, Nazis, George Floyd, nooses, misspelled Starbucks cups, Christopher Columbus, ICE raids, graffiti, swastikas, and more?
Notably, there are no CAIR broadcasts featuring the organization assisting in counter-terror efforts, or confronting anti-Semitic imams.
I have asked several TV stations if CAIR is giving the station money. Station representatives always assure me that is completely out of the question. Very well, but the appearance of impropriety remains.
However, it may also be the case that political/ideological interests are among the reasons why CAIR gets on TV so often and in connection with so many stories that have nothing to do with its stated mission.
For instance, both WCMH’s Cierra Johnson and WJW’s Wayne Dawson, who filed this story for their respective stations, are members of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ is an organization dedicated to improving the image of black Americans in the news. There are many examples of NABJ members filing stories that are favorable to CAIR. Names of NABJ members including Ava-joye Burnett and Kai Reed come to mind. If NABJ members think that giving favorable coverage to CAIR in the news is helping an ally, or furthering their cause, they are apparently unaware that CAIR will smash black Americans as thoroughly as anyone else who gets in its way.
It is not just black Americans. CAIR will also try to destroy Muslim Americans, too, when they become inconvenient.
Colleen Marshall anchored the news desk when the Ohio NBC affiliate station WCMH aired CAIR’s attacks against Romin Iqbal. CAIR used its media access to imply that Romin Iqbal, a CAIR rep who was providing information about the organization to counterterror researchers, was armed and possibly dangerous, and that he was working with an “anti-Muslim hate group.” CAIR told us on TV that its staffers were afraid to come to work due to the threat they thought Iqbal presented. CAIR told local area mosques to be extra vigilant.
This has to be against the law: TV broadcasts should not be able to incite the public against one person. But attacking people on TV is just what CAIR does again, and again.
For its part, WJW ran the story about CAIR’s reaction to the police chief of Sheffield Lake, Ohio losing his job over an “ill-conceived attempt at humor.” The chief’s joke implicated a lot of people, including the mayor, who gave him ten minutes to quit and leave the building.
It was not necessary for CAIR to say anything about this; there were enough people angry about it already. However, WJW gave CAIR a luxurious amount of time to denigrate the police chief, demand the entire police department be retrained (by CAIR), and threaten the man’s pension. Again, CAIR had nothing to do with any of this.
Ohio, and the rest of the country, needs legislation that makes using the TV to incite the public against a private citizen a crime. One should not be able to use TV broadcasts to tell lies about someone and expose that person to threats of physical danger.
We can call it the “No CAIR TV Attacks Act.”