Rantz: KOMO reporter caught lying about Seattle’s Hamas rally

KOMO-TV’s Joel Moreno was caught fabricating details about Seattle’s pro-Hamas rally over the weekend.

Roughly 1,000 pro-Hamas rallygoers took over Westlake Park to support Hamas, a terrorist group that slaughtered Jews, killing babies, raping women, and destroying kibbutzim. Moreno covered the rally for KOMO. He said the rallygoers were “calling for peace” and “humanitarian aid” in Gaza.

But Moreno is being willfully dishonest.

The rallygoers were chanting about wanting to destroy Israel. They even openly supported violence against Jews. And Moreno knows it. I have a video of him listening to the chants promoting violence.

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Revisionist history

Moreno’s piece goes to great lengths to portray the pro-Hamas rally as mainstream.

“Both Muslims and Jews attended the event, holding signs saying ‘Free Palestine’ and demanding that the focus be on restoring human rights to the people of Gaza, as well as providing humanitarian aid for the war-torn region,” Moreno wrote.

Though Moreno notes that “the rally included fiery rhetoric from a series of speakers,” he didn’t quote anyone to explain. In fact, he didn’t even quote any of the chants in his written piece. The only sign he notes is “Free Palestine.” What’s worse, he downplays the terrorist attack, calling it “the latest incident in the decades-old conflict.” He refers to the terrorists as “Hamas fighters.”

Moreno must moonlight as a publicist for pro-Hamas rallygoers. His report sanitized the Jewish and Israeli hatred on full display.

Here’s another video from yesterday’s pro-Hamas hate rally in Seattle. Local media did what it could to sanitize this. pic.twitter.com/VmJ15cRIXT

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) October 15, 2023

Destroying Israel

The rallygoers praised Hamas, declaring, “There is only one solution. Intifada revolution,” and “Long live the intifada.” An intifada is a violent uprising. They waived signs claiming “resistance is not terrorism.” Tell that to the families with kidnapped kids who are now used as shields. Or the man who huddled with dozens of others in a small bomb shelter, miraculously surviving as Hamas tossed a grenade inside.

“Over the last few days, the people of Gaza have broken out of their prison and have reminded us of their right to resist Zionist colonization, occupation, and blockade, and their right to resist and live in an occupied Palestine,” one speaker said, justifying the rapes, kidnapping, and murder. She went on to blame Jews for murdering Gazans “in cold blood.”

They chanted, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” This references erasing Israel (and every Jew in it) between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea. They similarly chanted, “We don’t want two-state. We want 1948!” This was before Israel was officially formed and recognized as a state. The land, however, belongs to the Jewish people ancestrally.

They even went so far as to praise the terrorist attack: “Palestine is our demand. No peace on stolen land. Intifada. Intifada.”

There were no calls for peace; there were calls to end Israel. At the start of the event, a speaker declared “Zionists” the enemy, warning the crowd to “not talk to Zionists.” This means, “don’t talk to Jews.”

Moreno knows all this, but he chose to tell you a fable about the march. I know he knows this because I saw him and his crew at the rally. At one point, it looked like he was being hassled and prevented from filming by one of the pro-Hamas “security” team members. I caught that on video, then continued to record as the crowd chanted, “No peace on stolen land” while Moreno watched on. That’s the literal opposite of what Moreno claimed.

While @JoelMorenoKOMO frames the pro-Hamas rally as “calling for peace,” please listen to the protesters chant, “No peace on stolen land.”

This is revisionist history and legitimizing a thousand people calling for an end to Israel and supporting a terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/obw5CpBi8z

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) October 15, 2023

Why is he lying about what happened?

I don’t easily call reporters liars. I usually give the benefit of the doubt, often against my gut, because I don’t want to believe a professional tasked with telling you the news has an ulterior motive. I’d rather it just be an unconscious bias. But I think Moreno is lying here. So the question is why?

Seattle is a deeply blue city with a vocal activist class. They love to bully those with whom they disagree, and that includes reporters. They even assault the ones they don’t like. The city also has far-left reporters who don’t hide their political positions. They have no problem framing stories to meet their political agenda.

I obviously don’t know why Moreno was lying. I imagine it’s a combination of wanting to give far-left Seattle what he think it wants and is liberal himself. But the reason doesn’t matter because the end result is the same.

Seattle pro-Hamas rally makes it clear — they want to destroy Israel.

“We don’t want two-state. We want 1948!”

“Long live the intifada.” pic.twitter.com/MX4MKw6yZf

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) October 14, 2023

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Dangerous mainstreaming of hate

The weekend rally would not be downplayed if it were for white supremacy.

Moreno wouldn’t mainstream the hate; he’d rightly call it out. Doing otherwise would set a dangerous precedent and signal to the community that white supremacy is acceptable. So why should we accept normalizing anti-Semitic hate?

The pro-Hamas crowd is celebrating a terrorist attack. Some justify it because they’ve convinced themselves that Hamas is the oppressor instead of the ones cruelly oppressing Palestinians. Others pretend it’s a Jewish conspiracy and that there was no terrorist attack. And they feel comfortable going out in public to march while chanting their hate. Why is that? Because Seattle has normalized it. The people who tell you “words are violence” and that microaggressions can destroy a person are chanting to wipe an entire country off the map.

Soon, the people calling for a genocide against Jews in Israel will start acting it out here at home. They hate Jews. Moreno may be okay not pushing back against that hate. As a Jew, I’m not okay with it.

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