Ryan Girdusky clashed with British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan on Monday night.

CNN has banned a conservative commentator from appearing on the network again after he told a Muslim journalist “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” an apparent reference to the spate of exploding pagers in Lebanon that killed members of the Hezbollah militant group last month.

Ryan Girdusky made the comment during a heated debate with Mehdi Hasan, a prominent British-American broadcaster and an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, on “CNN Newsnight” with host Abby Phillip.

The guests were discussing the racist jokes made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, which overshadowed former President Donald Trump’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday and continue to make headlines two days later.

As the debate turned fractious, Girdusky and Hasan sparred over whether the latter had been labeled an anti-Semite. “I’m a supporter of the Palestinians, I’m used to it,” Hasan said.

Girdusky replied: “Well I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Indiscriminate it was not. It was hyper targeted at everyone in the command chain that got a beeper. It’s not as if they sold them through normal stores to the general population.

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      11 hours ago

      Not improvised, and not on the civilian population, but you’re correct about the rest lol

    • spyd3r@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      indiscriminate terrorist attack on a civilian population

      You’re describing what the Palestinians did to Israel on 10/7, and have continued doing this entire time, when they launch rockets at Israeli population centers.

      • zbyte64@awful.systems
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        5 hours ago

        population centers

        Why does one side have population centers and the other human shields? It’s wrong regardless.

      • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        That’s also bad. Both of the sides are bad, and the Palestinian civilians are caught in the crossfire.

      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 hours ago

        I didn’t realize that HAMAS was as large an organization as the Israeli government and armed forces.

        We’re also talking about a completely different country from Palestine that had nothing to do with any part of any of these conflicts, and even then, an indiscriminate terrorist attack on Palestinian civilians wouldn’t be justified by HAMAS’s terrorism. That’s like saying that the US bombings on Iraqi civilians are justified by Al Qaeda’s attack on the WTC on 9/11.