Conservative radio host Mark Levin ripped into Politico Tuesday following a Washington Free Beacon report on one of its correspondents speaking at a conference put on by J Street, an anti-Israel organization.
The Free Beacon's Brent Scher reported:
Politico foreign affairs correspondent Nahal Toosi spoke on Sunday at a conference put on by J Street, a far-left anti-Israel group currently waging an aggressive campaign against the confirmation of the Trump administration's secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo.
Toosi was part of a panel discussion titled, "The Erosion of Diplomacy Under the Trump Administration." She was joined on stage by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D., Va.), a J Street-backedcongressman who has been critical of the administration's Israel policy, and Thomas Countryman, a former State Department official let go by the current administration who quickly emerged as a Trump critic.
J Street is actively campaigning against the confirmation of Pompeo. It described Pompeo as an "advocate for unnecessary wars" and predicted he would lead a State Department that "would do harm to American security, our international reputation, and the cause of peace."
On his national radio program, Levin read out Scher's report, which detailed Toosi's positive reports about J Street in contrast to her negative reporting on Pompeo.
"Nahal Toosi, the Politico foreign affairs correspondent, she's not a correspondent. She's a propagandist," Levin said.
Levin said Politico was hypocritical in its reporting on Sean Hannity, the pugnacious Fox News host and supporter of Donald Trump who was recently revealed to be a client of embattled lawyer Michael Cohen. A recent Politico headline read, "Cohen controersy tests Hannity's Teflon Sean reputation."
"Here's another clown reporter from Politico at a partisan, anti-Israel event, and she is a foreign affairs correspondent for Politico," Levin said. "Has Politico ever revealed who she is? Has Politico ever revealed her association with this organization? Of course not, and this goes on all the time."
Toosi told the J Street audience several times she wished she could express her opinion more often.
"Sometimes I really wish I was actually allowed to have an opinion, but I'm not because I'm a reporter," Toosi said during the Q&A session.
Politico said Toosi followed the news outlet's approval process for participating in external events, which had to be signed off on by both the editorial and business sides of the company.