Joe Scarborough: CNN, BBC Ignored Anti-Semitism in Paris Attack

Talk show host Joe Scarborough blasted networks CNN and the BBC for downplaying the role of anti-Semitism in an attack at a Jewish grocery store in Paris on Friday where four hostages, all Jews, were killed.

Scarborough warned media outlets on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" not to dismiss killings that take place because of anti-Semitism just because it "doesn't fit their political agenda."

"I'm struck by some of the coverage that I've seen since these shootings. At the beginning, there were some networks, including CNN, that were saying, 'Well, this wasn't focused towards Jews. These weren't anti-Semitic attacks,'" Scarborough said Tuesday. "There is anti-Semitism in Europe, and there is anti-Semitism in the media."

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The eyes of the world watched on Friday as two hostage situations gripped Paris following the attack on Wednesday at the offices of a satirical magazine, where terrorists killed 12 people. Gunman Amedy Coulibaly held patrons of a Jewish grocery store hostage, killing four of them before police killed him.

At the same time, police cornered the two gunmen wanted for the Wednesday attack, who held a hostage in a town near Paris. The gunmen, who had ties to al-Qaida, were killed when police stormed the building where they were hiding, freeing the hostage.

Scarborough, a former Florida Republican congressman, said the increase in anti-Semitism was "a very well-documented fact throughout France and all of Europe."

He singled out a BBC reporter for an interview with a Holocaust survivor who described fears about growing anti-Semitism.

"He said, 'Well, the Israelis treat the Palestinians bad, too' — trying to compare the Holocaust, the killing of 6 million Jews, to an ongoing fight in Israel," Scarborough said.

The Holocaust was the "reason why Israel exists," he said, adding that people "need to get a hell of a lot more sensitive to it, even if they are left-leaning media members."

"The fact that the BBC has a correspondent as insensitive and cold to the realities, this did not happen 300 years ago. This happened, you know, 60, 65 years ago. While Europe sat by and did nothing, they let 6 million Jews be exterminated. This is why Israel exists," he said. "I cannot believe that BBC is going to allow this man to stay on the BBC."

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