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Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Top U.S. newspapers have hardly covered Trump's antisemitic July 30 interview

The interview included multiple antisemitic attacks regarding Jewish voters, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, but the comments were referenced in just 6 unique articles

Media Matters has found that top U.S. newspapers largely failed to adequately cover GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's recent antisemitic attacks where he agreed with a claim from radio host Sid Rosenberg that second gentleman Doug Emhoff is a “horrible jew” and attacked Jewish voters, claiming that any Jewish person who votes for Vice President Kamala Harris “should have their head examined” and that any Jewish person who votes for Democrats is a “fool.” The papers published just 2 print articles about Trump's statements.

  • Five of the top papers by circulation — the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — have apparently published just 2 print articles and 6 online articles referencing these antisemitic attacks, collectively, since Trump's July 30 interview with radio host Sid Rosenberg through August 4, for a total of 6 unique articles (both print articles were also published online).

    During a July 30 radio interview with Rosenberg, Trump appeared to agree with comments from the host that Emhoff is a “crappy Jew” and a “horrible Jew.” The former president added, “Any Jewish person that voted for her [Harris], or him [Biden], or whoever it’s going to be, I assume it’s going to be her; anybody that did that should have their head examined.” Trump went on to say, “If you are Jewish, regardless of Israel, if you’re Jewish, if you vote for a Democrat, you’re a fool. An absolute fool.” The papers referenced Rosenberg's comments and Trump’s agreement about Emhoff in 4 online articles, and Trump's comments about Jewish voters were referenced in 2 print articles and 3 online articles.

    Of the five papers we reviewed, it appears only The New York Times and The Washington Post published articles referencing Trump's and Rosenberg's comments from the July 30 interview. The Post published 1 print article and 4 online articles while The Times published 1 print article and 2 online articles.

    The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal seemingly did not publish any articles referencing the antisemitic comments from the interview in the period studied.

    No papers published any articles that Media Matters would consider to be “about” any one comment, meaning that none of the comments were referenced in the headline or lead paragraphs of any article.

    Trump’s comments during the Rosenberg interview weren’t his only recent antisemitic attacks. In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 26, Trump said he doesn't “know how a person who’s Jewish can vote for her [Harris],” echoing a previous comment from March, when Trump said that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel.” Top U.S. newspapers failing to adequately cover and criticize Trump's antisemitic attacks will only allow them to continue unabated.
     

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched print and online articles in the Factiva database for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Trump,” “former president,” “Rosenberg,” “radio,” or “interview” within roughly the same paragraph as any of the terms “Emhoff,” “gentleman,” “Kamala,” “Harris,” or “vice president” or any variation of the term “Democrat” also within roughly the same paragraph as any of the terms “fool,” “fools,” “head,” “examined,” “crappy,” or “horrible” or any variation of the term “Jew” from July 30, 2024, when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and radio host Sid Rosenberg made antisemitic comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, though August 4, 2024.

    We included print and online articles, which we defined as instances when the recent antisemitic comments from Trump were mentioned anywhere in the text in any section of the paper or site. We considered an article to be “about” a recent antisemitic comment if it was mentioned in the headline or lead paragraphs.

    We included Trump's comment during the July 30 interview that any Jewish American who votes for Harris or Biden “should have their head examined” or who votes Democratic is “a fool, an absolute fool,” and Rosenberg's comments during that interview that Trump appeared to agree with that second gentleman Doug Emhoff is a “crappy Jew” and a “horrible Jew.”