Former top Clinton adviser Mark Penn blasts Wall Street Journal for coverage of attempted hijacking

Mark Penn, who was a top adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, criticized a Wall Street Journal article on the attempted hijacking of a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. 

During the flight on Wednesday, a knife-carrying pilot flying the commercial flight tried to stab a fellow pilot, resulting in the jet plummeting roughly 16,000 feet before making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, according to multiple news reports. 

Penn, who is now CEO of a communications firm, said about the WSJ article: "The cockpit stabbing and terrifying nosedive that brought chaos to FlyDubai Flight 1073," which was published on Wednesday, avoids any suggestion that the incident is connected to radical Islamic terror groups. 

"I’ve never seen a greater disconnect from reality in covering the news," Penn said in a post on X. 

Penn goes on to criticize the article for avoiding any speculations on motive, only saying there are "troubling possibilities." He also criticizes the article for making a reference to the war in Iran and the war against Hamas in Gaza. 

Authorities, as of Friday, have yet to announce what the pilot alleged to have committed the attack says was his motive or whether they have information or evidence about the motive. 

"No mention here of Oct. 7th, Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran’s link to terrorism in the UK yesterday — clearly the US or Israel must be to blame for this incident," Penn wrote.