In one of the least self-aware or most disingenuous segments on CNN in a long while, the Tuesday night handoff between Prime Time host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo and late-night host Don Lemon featured the pair suggesting their network had high standards for journalistic ethics that far surpassed those at Fox News. They also suggested that they would never put out lies about people because they had “news accountability.”
Of course, CNN has been one of the largest perpetrators of peddling lies and misinformation with both of them playing leading roles.
Lemon started the ranting by touting how “fired up” he was to discuss how “social media should be regulated.” “You shouldn't just be able to spread things about people that's not true. It has a big influence on someone's livelihood, their credibility, their career, even their lives,” he indignantly proclaimed.
He added: “I don't think I should be able to go on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and say whatever I want about Chris Cuomo whether it's true or not.”
A couple of minutes later, the duo lashed out at conservative media for having large platforms on social media, huffed about claims of censorship, and suggested they had no standards for journalistic ethics:
CUOMO: They’re all righties.
LEMON: They’re all righties. They’re – all of them are righties. And listen – and if you want to call it legacy media – even some of the conservative media they do the same thing. They have no – they have no real protocol. They have no real structure in what – they say what they want. They put headlines and things and write about things.
“They say it's opinion. This is all opinion,” Cuomo shouted. Lemon built off his friend and began to say that “we would never even put it on [TV], give it the light of day…” But Cuomo cut him off to assert, “That's because we have news accountability.”
Continuing to hound Fox News, Cuomo suggested their “whole nighttime lineup is entertainment” and it was “the Fox farce.” “They shouldn't be able to put things out there and with, you know, face no consequences,” Lemon whined.
The idea that Lemon, Fredo, or any one at CNN for that matter would “never” put out lies and false information would be laughable if it wasn’t dangerous.
Lemon had some nerve to warn that lies ruin lives, when just last year CNN had to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann after they spent days smearing him as a racist. Especially since he was facing a sexual assault suit.
And as NewsBusters thoroughly documented, Cuomo had hitched himself to Rebekah Jones, a con artist who got the liberal media to believe false claims that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) had been hiding COVID death numbers. In reality, Fredo wanted to promote the claims to make his corrupt brother, disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) look good.
As for journalistic ethics and “news accountability,” Cuomo still had yet to be held accountable for a recent accusation of sexual harassment. Then there was CNN’s refusal to hold him accountable for secretly advising his brother through his own sexual misconduct scandals and misleading his audience about the extent of his involvement.
Then there’s all of Cuomo’s lies and smears against Republicans. In addition to taking soundbites, chopping them up, and presenting them out of context, Fredo has tried to tie a bomb scare to the GOP, claimed there’s a “through-line” from the Tulsa race massacre to the current GOP, and then there was the time he reported that the GOP was waging a “holy war” to bring back Jim Crow (just a few examples).
And, perhaps most importantly, has Don found that Malaysia’s airliner in that black hole yet?
This is CNN.
This exchange of lies and other nonsense between those two unserious journalists was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships ServPro and Tractor Supply Co. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
September 28, 2021
10:00:32 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Okay. So, you know, this one – I'm fired up about. I’ve always felt this way that social media should be regulated. They should follow the same rules that we follow here in legacy media. They should -- You shouldn't just be able to spread things about people that's not true. It has a big influence on someone's livelihood, their credibility, their career, even their lives.
And so, I think that this should be regulated. I've always thought that. I don't think I should be able to go on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and say whatever I want about Chris Cuomo whether it's true or not.
(…)
10:02:52 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS CUOMO: But there are a lot of things that are felonious you're letting get by just because it works for your business model and the time has come for them – We have to flip it and show us that you can't do what you're being asked to do.
LEMON: The most egregious of it all though, is what you said. The people who have the biggest platform on social media.
CUOMO: They’re all righties.
LEMON: They’re all righties. They’re – all of them are righties. And listen – and if you want to call it legacy media – even some of the conservative media they do the same thing. They have no – they have no real protocol. They have no real structure in what – they say what they want. They put headlines and things and write about things.
CUOMO: They say it's opinion. This is all opinion.
LEMON: But most people – most people – we would never even put it on, give it the light of day because number one –
CUOMO: That's because we have news accountability.
LEMON: --we know it’s not true, it’s innuendo – That's the –
CUOMO: That’s the Fox farce. The whole nighttime lineup is entertainment.
LEMON: All right, but Fox and social – they said – then they shouldn't put “news” behind it and social media should do the same thing. They shouldn't be able to put things out there and with, you know, face no consequences.
(…)
