On Friday night, CNN host Don Lemon devoted his show to two stories arguing that President Donald Trump is responsible for inspiring some Americans to show bigotry toward others.
But the same show ignored an actual violent attack on a group of Donald Trump supporters that occurred more than a week ago in which perpetrator Gregory Timm admitted to driving his van into a group of Republicans because he hates President Trump.
In fact, while Fox News gave the story substantial coverage, Brooke Baldwin was the only prominent CNN host who gave it significant attention, with the story otherwise buried in the early morning hours.
On Friday's CNN Tonight show, host Lemon picked up on an article in the Washington Post as he introduced a story blaming President Trump for children bullying minority children:
DON LEMON: Tonight a really disheartening report about a new strain of bullying in America's schools. The Washington Post finding that some of the nation's students are picking up President Trump's insulting and inflammatory language, and often using it against classmates who are black, Latino or Muslim.
He soon turned to Washington Post reporter John Woodrow Cox and posed: "John, you report that since Trump took office, his provocative and xenophobic language has seeped into schools, and children as young as six years old -- six -- are mimicking his insults. Tell us about that."
After Cox asserted that the Post had found 300 cases of mostly minority children being bullied by children quoting President Trump, Lemon recalled that he has covered this topic on his show before:
LEMON: I remember when this started happening a couple of years ago, when this started happening, we started hearing kids saying, "Build a wall, go back." I think we did a report on it on this show a while ago -- at least a parent talked about it on this show about someone saying, "Build a wall," to her kids of color, brown, Latino kids.
After playing a number of soundbites of President Trump from his speeches, Lemon followed up:
LEMON: The Washington Post reviewed 28,000 news stories of Trump-inspired harassment in schools and found that at least three quarters of the attacks were directed at kids of minority ethnicity. There are also cases of backlash against students who support Trump. But this polarization now is in our schools, and the vast majority is coming from the racist, inflammatory language of this President and his supporters.
As he concluded the segment, the CNN host teased for viewers the next segment that would deal with an increase in white supremacist activity: "An alarming warning from the Anti-Defamation League. White supremacist propaganda doubling from 2018 to 2019 -- why hate is on the rise. Next."
After a commercial break, the report by Sara Sidner touted President Trump's comments asserting that the "Squad" members of Congress should go back to their home countries as the kind of inspiration that white supremacists have gotten from the President.
Even though the attack against Republicans in Florida was actually a violent incident that resulted in an arrest, the same show ignored the story last week, and the entire CNN network only gave it a little more than three minutes as Baldwin was the only host to give it a full report on her afternoon show.
MSNBC buried the story at 6:09 a.m. on Sunday, February 9, giving it less than two minutes.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, February 14, CNN Tonight:
CNN Tonight
2/14/2020
10:40 p.m. Eastern
DON LEMON: Tonight a really disheartening report about a new strain of bullying in America's schools. The Washington Post finding that some of the nation's students are picking up President Trump's insulting and inflammatory language, and often using it against classmates who are black, Latino or Muslim.
(…)
John, you report that since Trump took office, his provocative and xenophobic language has seeped into schools, and children as young as six years old -- six -- are mimicking his insults. Tell us about that.
JOHN WOODROW COX, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah, so we found in excess of 300 cases over the last two years since 2016 of kids right like you said as young as six saying things like, "Build the wall," "Go back behind the wall," "Go back where you came from." Often kids will just surround children of color and just yell the word "Trump" at them, obviously meaning as if it's a slur. We've seen this as sporting events -- we've seen this in classrooms -- we've seen adults, teachers, coaches who've said these sorts of things to students. So, you know, clearly the language that he's used in tweets that he's directed at his enemies, kids are hearing that, and they're repeating it over and over, and this has never stopped.
LEMON: I remember when this started happening a couple of years ago, when this started happening, we started hearing kids saying, "Build a wall, go back." I think we did a report on it on this show a while ago -- at least a parent talked about it on this show about someone saying, "Build a wall," to her kids of color, brown, Latino kids.
(…)
The Washington Post reviewed 28,000 news stories of Trump-inspired harassment in schools and found that at least three quarters of the attacks were directed at kids of minority ethnicity. There are also cases of backlash against students who support Trump. But this polarization now is in our schools, and the vast majority is coming from the racist, inflammatory language of this President and his supporters.
(…)
An alarming warning from the Anti-Defamation League. White supremacist propaganda doubling from 2018 to 2019 -- why hate is on the rise. Next.
