CNN, Fox Air Claims Newsom Made SAT Remarks To ‘Black Audience’ — Don’t Show Video Of White-Strewn Crowd

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) suffered bad-faith attacks from guests on CNN and Fox News personalities claiming he made “offensive” remarks to a “Black audience” — despite copious video evidence to the contrary that was not shown.

It all started with an exchange from a book tour event in support of Newsom’s memoir “Young Man in a Hurry” that has been clipped down into various states of contextlessness.

Here is the entire exchange, with the operative portion transcribed below:

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): And I say to kids all the time, learn from, don’t follow others. Your expression’s unique, nobody else has it.

And I’ve really just, the way we’re doing, some of you may have seen some of my social media.

I’m on the other, you know this, I’m the other side. I just am, I am on the side. I don’t want to dream of regretting anymore. No could have, would have, should have. It’s all out there and I just want to put it all out there.

I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you. I’m like you. I’m no better than you.

You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy.

And, you know, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know trying to act all there if you got 940.

But literally a 960 SAT guy, I cannot, you’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. This may be the wrong business to be.

My dyslexia, I haven’t overcome dyslexia. I’m living with it.

As is obvious even from this small bit of context, Newsom is conveying that he doesn’t feel superior to anyone else, using his below-average SAT score and his struggle with a learning disability as reference points. No need to explain further to anyone with eyes and ears, or to watch all six minutes and change.

Then along comes the trollish MAGA “End Wokeness” account to post a shortened version with the false message “Gov. Newsom to a black crowd in GA: ‘I am like you. I’m a 960 SAT guy. I can’t read.'”

Enter a mostly-bad faith pile-on by Trump fans accusing Newsom of “racism” (some may have merely been lazy and not checked anything) and repetitions of the false claim that Newsom made his (completely innocuous in every way) comments in front of a “Black audience” whom he views as illiterate.

On Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, there were hosts, guests, and anchors who made the claim, and a few who made counterclaims — Noah Rothman, on Fox’s The Story, said “We don’t know if that room was full of African Americans” — and one dude who admitted it was false but stood by it “for the purposes of my joke”:

Again, Black audience or not, Newsom was plainly referring to his own struggle with a learning disability and how it helps him relate to the average person. But it matters that the false claim was made because it was central to the false “racism” accusation.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, guest anchor Kasie Hunt held a discussion on the furor in which the facts around the exchange were presented as a matter of debate. Two guests — Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) — claimed as fact that the audience was Black.

But Strickland defended Newsom on the condition that he must have made similar remarks to other audiences. On that front, Hunt played a montage to that effect.

Ex-Trump official David Urban didn’t explicitly make the claim, but he did say, “It’s racially insensitive to go there and say, hey, look, I’m dumb, just like you guys” — explicitly smearing people with learning disabilities as “dumb.”

Lawler made the claim twice, and Hunt pushed back the second time by reading a tweet from Erick Erickson that said of Newsom, “He was trying to relate to white middle class people in a mostly middle class crowd.”

Kudos to Hunt and CNN for putting together that montage, but this actually is not a matter of debate or the generosity of Erick Erickson. As it happens, there’s actually copious video evidence of the makeup of that crowd.

At the end of the livestream, members of the audience stand up in view of the camera. Additionally, a pro-Newsom poted clips in real time showing the audience as the lights came up, and showing the crowd lining up to get in. There were, scientifically speaking, hella White people.

You can try to express an opinion about what you think Newsom was saying and to whom you think he was saying it, but a news organization must not only stick to the facts but ensure they are never up for “debate.”

And when there’s readily available video evidence, there’s really no excuse for letting lies like this on the air.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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