CNN's 'Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests' chyron as arson fire rages stuns viewers

By Douglas Ernst - The Washington Times - Thursday, August 27, 2020

CNN left political observers stunned this week for its decision to pair a “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING” chyron with reporting in front of an arson fire.

Correspondent Omar Jimenez’s reporting from Kenosha in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake went viral, particularly in conservative media circles, with hundreds of thousands of views.

“What you’re seeing is one of multiple locations that have been burning in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the course of the night, a second night since Jacob Blake was seen shot in the back seven times by a police officer,” he told the network’s Laura Jarret. “And what you are seeing now, these images came in stark contrast to what we saw over the course of the daytime hours in Kenosha and into the early evening, which were largely peaceful demonstrations in the face of law enforcement.”

“It’s impossible to dunk on CNN harder than it dunks on itself,” deadpanned podcaster Buck Sexton.

“The standard read on why the media does things like this is that they’re trying to ingratiate themselves to the left, but I don’t think that’s true in this case,” wrote Hot Air’s Allahpundit Thursday morning. “Spin like this will draw much more flak from the center and right than it will praise from progressives. To fart out something this addled, you have to believe it yourself. This is CNN’s copy team demonstrating that it’s unable to conceptualize what’s happening in Kenosha as anything but good on balance.”

Turning Point USA Chief Creative Officer Benny Johnson joked “fire is very peaceful” with a video embed tallying nearly 340,000 views within hours.

“Conservatives [seeing this] recall a similar mind-bending incident by MSNBC’s Ali Velshi in Minneapolis on the Lyin’ Brian Williams show in May, saying ‘this is… mostly a protest…It is not, generally speaking, unruly,” added conservative media watchdog NewsBusters.

Mr. Velshi’s reporting in May for “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” featured him in front of a giant arson fire while an MSNBC chyron read: “Police Station & Other Buildings Burning in Minneapolis.”