Dan Abrams Responds to Roland Martin’s Accusation of Taking Him Out of Context: ‘Doesn’t Change the Meaning’ of His Words

Ken MeyerMar 8th, 2022, 9:31 am
 

NewsNation host Dan Abrams defended himself from Roland Martin’s accusation of taking him out of context during their recent interview.

Martin appeared last week on Dan Abrams Live, where the eponymous host and Mediaite founder pressed Martin over his tweets criticizing the police. Abrams aired Martin’s tweets without the stories they were linked to, and Martin has demanded an apology, saying Abrams unfairly left out crucial context.

Abrams re-capped the dispute on Monday, and he acknowledged the framing concerns while pointing out that Martin’s words were inflammatory.

“When we showed [Martin’s remarks] on Thursday, we just showed his commentary in its entirety, but not the stories they were attached to,” Abrams said. “That’s our bad, but I’m particularly sorry because it has allowed many, including Roland, to change the subject away from the inflammatory words. It wasn’t intended as a gotcha moment.”

After rolling footage of last week’s interview and recognizing Martin’s remarks as quote tweets, Abrams said “we should have made that clear and I absolutely should have had the full tweets in hand. But this context debate has obscured the real issue: the content. The context that it was attached to a story does nothing to explain why someone would say ‘every cop should be fired.'”

Let me offer an example. If I link to a story of a few radical Republicans or a few radical Democrats saying or doing something crazy and tweet on top of that ‘Every Republican should be fired’ or ‘Every Democrat should be fired,’ I would be held to account for my sweeping indictment of one party or the other, regardless of any story I had linked to. Because that was the commentary. Those were my words, not these Democrats or Republicans, but every one. The obvious interpretation would be that I wanted to make it clear that I was mad at the party and made a broad statement about how every one of them should be fired. And I would have to answer for that.

Abrams argued that Martin “and many of his supporters have spent most of their time attacking me over context that doesn’t change the meaning of the words.”

I have always said that bad police officers should be held to account, but they should not be lumped in with the rest of the very good ones. I am well aware that saluting the hard work that police do every day is not a popular position in today’s media environment, but I’m not be intimidated or cowed by insults and attacks. Roland and I clearly disagree on certain issues in policing, but you are not going to hear me insulting him back. I respect Roland Martin and will just invite him back on the show if he would like to discuss further. Because as always, I am open to hearing all sides of a story, and in the end, you decide.

Martin responded to the segment on Twitter.

“This @danabrams @danabramslive segment is disingenuous and utterly ridiculous,” he wrote. “And it is precisely why I didn’t waste my time appearing on his show. Dan seems to keep his head stuck in the sand. He keeps thinking I said ALL cops should be fired. This is silly and pathetic, Dan.”

Watch above, via NewsNation.

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