Jon Stewart Blasts CNN For Airing Tyre Nichols Bodycam Footage: ‘They’re Playing it Like Fox Plays Spring Break Footage’

Jon Stewart lambasted CNN for their airing of the Tyre Nichols bodycam footage.

During a recent episode of his podcast, The Problem with Jon Stewart, Stewart was joined by writers Kasaun Wilson and Rob Christensen to discuss the release of the footage and the nation’s reaction.

“I think this is the first time where I’m like, you know what I’m not gonna go on Twitter, I’m not going on Facebook. I’m just gonna relax and let it do its thing,” Wilson said about trying to avoid seeing the footage over the weekend.

“Now CNN is playing the video. I wish y’all would stop. Y’all just playing it in restaurants and McDonald’s and Wendy’s,” Wilson said.

“Are they playing it like wallpaper?” Stewart asked. “Are they doing that thing where it’s in the box and the announcer is talking about something else and you’re just seeing it over and over again?”

“You know, like if Kobe hit a game winner and they would just — SportsCenter would just keep playing it over and over going to commercial,” Wilson described.

“Are you fucking serious?” Stewart said.

“They’re playing it like Fox play’s Spring break footage,” Stewart said. “Like it’s just on the loop and now it’s like they’re talking about something else, but the girls in bikinis are still dancing.”

“Like that’s how they’re using this. Like here’s how quickly that gets, just numbing. When they first put it out there, they had to do that like cheesy disclaimer — ‘Now this image — the images you’re about to see, are somewhat disturbing and I wanna warn everybody,’ and then fucking two hours later it’s just rolling like it’s a Vine,” Stewart said.

As the conversation continued, they focused the discussion on the odd hype ahead of the initial release of the footage.

“The anticipation leading up to that. I just thought like, the only time you ever see that is like when Taylor Swift is about to put out a ‘Taylor’s version,'” Stewart said. “Like the news media was almost giddy and salivating over what? Where they were cutting into programs, you know, ‘Coming up, the video’s gonna be coming out in two hours and then after that I’m sure we’re gonna be able to get you some real shit. Like we’re gonna get you some real shit.'”

“They really hyped it up,” Wilson agreed. “It’s like, ‘Yo, you seen the season premiere of Police Brutality, we can’t wait.’ And then the video came out and then Fox News is like, ‘Yeah, the cops are black. What y’all gonna say now?’ We’re like, yeah, we’re gonna say the exact same thing. It’s all — just cause it’s not central casting and it’s not a white police officer and a black victim… Actually may not have been a better scenario for us to discuss anti-blackness than in a scenario where the cops are black. Because now we can actually discuss structural issues.”

“And how maybe this really is now, maybe it allows everybody to get past a point and go like, all right, we’re framing this wrong. And this really is about a system that’s been designed. And it doesn’t matter who you plug into that system, the outcomes will be the same,” Stewart concluded.

Listen above via The Problem with Jon Stewart.