Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo Slam ‘Journalistic Malpractice’ in Ma’Khia Bryant Coverage
CNN anchors Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo ripped “journalistic malpractice” in the media coverage of the police killing of 16 year-old Ma’Khia Bryant a day after defending the officer who shot the teenager.
At the top of Thursday night’s edition of CNN Tonight, the hosts reiterated their defense of officer Nicholas Reardon in the shooting of the teenager, based on harrowing and heartbreaking police body-worn camera footage that was released to the public shortly after the incident, and garage-cam footage that was released later.
Lemon reiterated that he thought Reardon had a duty to “protect and serve the other life on that scene,” and decried comparisons of the Bryant killing with other incidents.
Cuomo said that “this is not a great case to fight on the facts about how policing has to change because this use of force was wrong,” and Lemon agreed “This is not it.”
Cuomo added that “the reason that the case still matters to people of color” is that “Whenever there’s a problem and it’s someone of color, they only seem to be hearing about it all the time with a bad outcome. And it’s heartbreaking.”
Lemon also took issue with commentators who second-guessed the shooting:
LEMON: And people, you know, shoot in the leg. People don’t stab people with their feet. They’re stabbing with their arms and their upper body. So, their — the officer is shooting to neutralize the threat. The threat is coming from where? Here. that’s where the threat’s — and that’s where he shoots, to stop the motion of where the knife is coming from. And, again, everyone’s what about a taser? Tasers don’t always work in these situations. Talk to Barksdale or anybody else.
CUOMO: Tasers don’t always work. Full stop.
LEMON: They don’t always work. Full stop. It’s just not — they’re not efficient enough from that distance and that amount of time.
Lemon went on to decry those who have compared the Bryant with other incidents he sees as dissimilar, saying “we’ve got to be honest about these things, and if we’re not honest about these things as journalists, then it is a dereliction of our duty as journalists. It’s journalistic malpractice not to do it.
“I heard some people were reporting on the incident without showing the knife,” Cuomo said.
“Yes, you got to show all of it,” Lemon said, to which Cuomo agreed “That is malpractice.”
Cuomo and Lemon were likely referring to an NBC News report, flagged by conservative media website Newsbusters, in which the knife was only shown laying on the ground.
Watch above via CNN.
