On the June 3 edition of the syndicated television program, The McLaughlin Group, Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley said that the reporting of the alleged massacre by U.S. troops of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, “is already being used by the opponents of the president” as a “blood libel,” and that “the over-reporting of it by a gleeful media is more damaging to the country than any other single fact.” A "blood libel" is an accusation that a group practices a form of human sacrifice; the term has most frequently been used to accuse Jews of murdering non-Jews, especially children, and using their blood to make Passover matzoh.

As Media Matters for America noted, Blankley -- who also co-hosts Left, Right & Center on radio station KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College in California, and appears regularly on The McLaughlin Group -- has previously called progressive financier George Soros “a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust.”

From the June 3 edition of The McLaughlin Group:

BLANKLEY: The point it that this is going to be used, and is already being used by the opponents of the president, domestically and abroad, as a blood libel not just against these young -- these young men but against the military service and against the country. I've always been on one show -- I've already been on one show this week where they were tarring the entire honor of the American men in uniform -- of women in uniform. It's going to be -- Pat's correct -- it's going to be a propaganda catastrophe for the Unites States. And the over-reporting of it by a gleeful media is more damaging to the country than any other single fact.

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