Certain facts should be made clear in all news coverage of the Minneapolis-St. Paul church incident and the arrest of my former CNN colleague Don Lemon. As I’ve reported, audiences should know what federal law says about places of worship, and that Lemon broadcast people, including children, live from inside the church without permission.
They should know that in an affidavit, churchgoers describe feeling afraid and “terrorized,” being unable to reach their children, and not knowing whether anyone in the crowd had weapons. Here’s the full affidavit:
Simultaneously, audiences should be told there’s no evidence of physical violence or weapons, and participants said they were protesting the fact that an assistant pastor works for ICE. (Some news reports said that according to Black Lives Matter Minnesota, that pastor wasn’t even there at the time; now, others say he was there.)
News consumers should also be told that Trump abuses authority in numerous ways, including the prosecution of political enemies. Meanwhile, he pardoned violent January 6 rioters.
And all that’s just the beginning. Learn more in this episode:
You may be thinking, “Yup, you’ve told us that!” But note that I used the word “incident.” That’s because of an important conversation I had with a fellow longtime journalist who is also committed to the truth.
‘Our children were weeping’
The reactions to Friday’s newsletter have been amazing. I’ve received numerous messages from people currently employed by Big Media, saying they’re disturbed by how their own news agencies ignore these crucial points. In general, the position of news giants has been that Lemon’s actions were protected by the First Amendment.
As I’ve explained, that’s a dangerous and specious argument, which becomes clear when you imagine other scenarios: white supremacists burst into a Black church or a pro-Hamas crowd bursts into a synagogue, and streamers follow them in, broadcasting live. They could use the same arguments that the Minneapolis protesters and Lemon are making now.
Tenisha Tidwell is a terrific former executive producer at CNN. (She and I worked some crazy hours together when I was on air there.) She noted that in discussing Cities Church, I previously used the word “protesters;” Friday, I wrote “rioters.”
It’s true. In the interim, I read the allegations in the affidavit and understood why congregants could feel that the scenario went beyond what they associate with the word “protest.” Descriptions include “our children were weeping,” and an agitator “continued to scream in the faces of young children while they were crying.” It’s also worth noting that, according to the affidavit, as a crowd attempted to flee the building, one woman was injured, breaking her arm.
But it’s possible that the term “riot” should be avoided because of what people associate with that word. I’m big on dictionaries. I’ve explained that if we lack common understandings of words, we end up in a Tower of Babel scenario. I shared three powerful examples in this episode:
The dictionary doesn’t help much on this one. Webster’s says “riot” can refer to “violence, tumult, or disorder.” Big Media has generally stuck to “protesters.” On They Stand Corrected, I’ve pointed out that the Christian Broadcasting Network covers important stories that news giants ignore, and often shows greater moral clarity. CBN called it a “riot.”
The January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol was a riot by any definition, since it included violence. But even that raises a question: What about participants of that day — a horrible stain on our democracy — who did not participate in violence? Are they still “rioters” for being involved at all?
As for arrests, here’s how democracy should work: Apply laws equally to everyone. We need a government that does so. We don’t have that. An administration that pardons January 6 rioters lacks the moral authority to prosecute people in this scenario.
That doesn’t make the actions at Cities Church legal or ethical. News giants are perfectly capable of making that clear. In today’s failed Big Media landscape, that’s not happening.
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