With every utterance from President Donald Trump being portrayed by CNN as hate speech or worse, you would think they would be careful not to promote hatred themselves.
But on Tuesday they did the exact opposite when the cable outlet invited self-described white nationalist Richard Spencer on his program to discuss the latest controversy involving Trump’s tweets.
“The segment on Jake Tapper’s The Lead covered neo-Nazis’ support for Trump’s racist attacks on four progressive congresswomen of color,” The Daily Beast reported. “The spot included an interview with Spencer who said Trump is playing a ‘con game’ and that his attacks were not racist enough.”
After being given intense media coverage in 2016 and 2017, Richard Spencer had largely disappeared from public view this past year, particularly since his wife's accusations of domestic violence were made public.
Today, @TheLeadCNN put him back on air.https://t.co/mRoDiIhun1
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) July 16, 2019
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“He gives us nothing outside of racist tweets,” Spencer said. “And by racist tweets, I mean tweets that are meaningless and cheap and express the kind of sentiments you might hear from your drunk uncle while he’s watching [Sean] Hannity.”
Spencer shared his appearance on CNN segment on Twitter.
“The CNN anchors didn’t understand that Spencer was trying to position Trump as a moderate and to mock other white supremacists who supported Trump,” said Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Project at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center. “Spencer was saying that Trump was performing racism on Twitter, but that his policies do not go far enough to be considered support for white supremacists goals.”
Today on its valuable airwaves, CNN gave a platform to white nationalist Richard Spencer. There is literally nothing productive Spencer brings to the conversation. Whoever made this shameful decision should be fired. https://t.co/rKTTyc1OUY pic.twitter.com/o060SS47ZD
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) July 16, 2019
What’s WRONG with CNN?
But let’s look at the big picture. Forget about what Spencer is saying here. No one, at least no one with a heart or conscience, should care what he has to say.
Which leads us to the most obvious question: What is WRONG with CNN?
For all their handwringing about the harshness of the current political environment and how Trump is inspiring racists, CNN puts an ACTUAL RACIST on television.
If you wanted to promote racism, putting an outspoken white supremacist on a major cable platform might be a good place to start.
So let us hear no more from CNN about the president or Republicans stoking “hatred.” CNN seems to be doing that just fine all by themselves.