Media top headlines May 18
Sen. Tom Cotton saying the Associated Press has to account for working in the same building as Hamas and more round out today's top media headlines.
NBC Peacock host Emma Vigeland was blasted Monday over a tweet equating the Israeli and U.S. governments to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization that openly seeks to destroy Israel.
Vigeland, a former host on the liberal The Young Turks Network, made the comparison amid the ongoing violence as Israel responds to rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip.
ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT CONTINUES TO INTENSIFY; ROCKETS REPORTED FROM LEBANON
"Hamas is no more of a terrorist organization than the Israeli and US governments. If killing civilians is the criteria, & the targeting of an ethnic group buttresses the claim, the US/Israel meet the same standard. Colonial, anti-brown violence is given legitimacy based on power," the left-wing host wrote in the now-deleted tweet.
The Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo called Vigeland out for deleting it and posted a screenshot.
Vigeland responded to Kredo with another tweet, saying she deleted it because she feared "dishonest rightwing actors" would twist her words. She admitted her wording "wasn't precise," but she stood behind the thought she was trying to provoke.
GOP RESOLUTION BACKS ISRAEL's ‘RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF,' OMITS CALL FOR CEASE-FIRE
She didn't, however, specify why she felt the U.S. and Israel were responsible for "state-sponsored terrorism against brown people."
Following the deletion of her tweet and Kredo's response, Vigeland became the focus of intense criticism on social media, including from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who slammed bias in the media's coverage of the conflict in Israel, as well as "privileged" journalists being unable to tell the "difference between the terrorists of Hamas and the nation of Israel."
MSNBC's ALI VELSHI: ‘ISRAEL’s TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS IS APARTHEID. PERIOD'