In a bizarre video released from the Daily Caller, a conservative site founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush is using a Yiddish word while a Jewish song plays over it.
The video is Thrush's Wednesday night appearance on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" in which he noted President Donald Trump's "chutzpah and the political genius of declaring everything a victory even if it is a loss..."
The Daily Caller then looped Thrush saying the word "chutzpah" over and over again while playing the traditional Jewish folk song Hava Nagila. The video lasts 24 seconds and Thrush describes himself as a "secular Jew," according to a 2016 interview with Ben Carson.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Task Force on Harassment and Journalism released an extensive report detailing a widespread anti-Semitic outbreak of harassment of journalists on Twitter during 2016.
Fellow colleague Maggie Haberman noticed the video first trying to clarify if this was really what she was seeing.
The comments were brutal as well.
"This is pretty clearly antisemitic and low, even by your standards," said YouTube user Matthew Strahan.
"So you've gone full antisemitic then," said another user that goes by Gweskoyen.
The Daily Caller hasn't released a comment about the video. Raw Story reached out to Chief Video Editor Richie McGinniss for comment but have not heard back.
UPDATE: The Daily Caller has deleted the video from the site as well as their YouTube page. Raw Story downloaded the video and we have uploaded it along with the original screen captures of the video on the Daily Caller's YouTube page. The Daily Caller responded saying, "What @Betsyscirbeindc wants, Betsy Rothstein gets." That tweet has not yet been deleted. Rothstein is a former editor from FishbowlDC who joined the Daily Caller in 2013. She replied to the tweet saying, "Haha I appreciate that."
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Betsy Rothstein Tweet[/caption]
UPDATE 2: Rothstein later explained that she was struck by Thrush's "perfect pronunciation of the word" and thought that it would make for a good video. The Daily Caller has yet to make a public statement or apologize to Thrush.
UPDATE 3: In a statement to Raw Story, Daily Caller's Betsy Rothstein disagreed with the assessment that the video was anti-Semitic.
"The notion that this was an anti-Semitic stunt is wrong," she said via email. "It was a lighthearted attempt at humor concerning Glenn Thrush's utterly perfect pronunciation of the word 'Chutzpah' that was wildly misconstrued when the video was released without proper context. I've spoken with Glenn. He knows I meant no harm by it whatsoever. I personally assured him of that and we had a very funny conversation filled with laughter. I'm relieved that someone in this town still has a sense of humor."
Watch the video below:
