On MSNBC’s Up With Chris Hayes Sunday morning, the show took its long-form approach to a whole new level, devoting the entire program to an examination of the relationships between the United States, Israel, Iran, and the Palestinians. Host Chris Hayes was joined by panelists Rula Jebreal of Newsweek, The Israel Project‘s Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, and New America Foundation‘s Leila Hilal for a discussion that managed to remain civil, and while it barely managed to scratch the surface (even at two hours), it was an admirably thorough entree to this complicated topic.
One of the things that sets Up apart from other political talk shows is that its 2-hour length and panel-only format allows the show to take a deeper look into most topics, typically spending several segments on each. The downside to that is that, despite the fact that I probably spend about 3 hours a week watching the show, its format and content defy the kind of quick summarization and quote-pulling that make for a good Mediaite post.