Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

Disclaimer: We all make mistakes.

Not quite like Fox News’ deliberate digs, but all publications drop the ball every now and then. And everyone’s beloved CNN isn’t any different.

Now don’t get us wrong, we’re usually rocking with their alleged liberal bias, but recently, the news network has found themselves in hot water over coverage of some pretty controversial current events. And while some are probably honest mistakes, the few we rounded up are pretty unforgivable.

Like granting George Zimmerman an interview to see how he’s coping with life post-trial? We…just…can’t.

Lesson here? CNN might want to proceed with extreme prudence when deciding how to highlight the bad guy…or a bad situation…in the future.

That Time CNN Defended The Steubenville Rapists:

CNN came under fire last year after coverage of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case turned into a sympathetic segment that focused on the convicted rapists’ “promising futures,” instead of the lasting effects the rape would have on the 16-year-old victim. During the segment, CNN reporter Poppy Harlow delivered this bit about the convicted rapists’ lives “falling apart:”

“I’ve never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional, incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures — star football players, very good students — we literally watched as, they believe, their life fell apart,” Harlow said. “One of the young men, Ma’lik Richmond, when that sentence came down, he collapsed in the arms of his attorney. . . . He said to him, ‘My life is over! No one is going to want me now.’”

CNN anchor Candy Crowley agreed, adding that registering as sex offenders would haunt the teen boys for the rest of their lives. She even interviewed a legal expert about the ramifications of being convicted of rape at such a young age. But coverage about the prevalence of rape culture in our society that excuses such behavior? Absent.

You can watch the coverage (which sparked an online petition for the network to apologize) above.

That Time They Asked If The KKK Could Rebrand:

Just a week after a Ku Klux Klan member fatally shot three people at Jewish institutions in Kansas, CNN presented what Gawker called a “landmark expression of idiocy.”

Can the Klan actually rebrand?

CNN reporter Ashley Fantz took to the streets to answer the rhetorical question that should never have made it to daylight and found out some interesting things about this “new” Klan.

“Imperial Ancona, who lives in Missouri, insists there’s a new Klan for modern times — a Klan that’s ‘about educating people to our ideas and getting people to see our point of view to…help change things,'” CNN’s Ashley Fantz writes. “He said he and those like him can spread that message without violence — a sort of rebranding of the Klan.”

Fantz and CNN must have forgotten, however, that the Klan has gone through this type of rebranding before, but always with the same hatred and racism they’ve set out to distribute. And at the end of the day, packaging racism in a suit and telling the public to spread the word without violence isn’t much of a transformation. Not one that we should be entertaining, anyway.

That Time They Granted George Zimmerman An Interview:

Bad guy. Need we say more?

That Time CNN Supported The False Idea That Only Black Men Participated In The Knock-Out Game:

Not only did CNN refuse to acknowledge that the urban myth known as the “Knockout Game” may not actually be true (despite skepticism from New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly), the news network also decided to air a segment that supported the racial nuances of the violent crimes.

And while they didn’t actually support a “bad guy” in this case, it was certainly perpetuating a bad situation. During the segment, guest Rabbi Gary Moskowitz, a black-belt rabbi, instructed Jewish people on how to defend themselves against the “animals” playing the shocking game.

“The issue is … they’re not just attacking Jews theologically. What they’re doing is, they’re attacking weaker people. It’s very much like the animal kingdom,” he said. “They’re attacking weaker people. So they attack elderly women, they attack children. And Jewish people, unfortunately, especially in the Orthodox community are considered weak.”

He then went on to demonstrate how to protect oneself when under attack, using CNN host Don Lemon as a prop — a hilarious and awkward addition to an otherwise racist segment that looped a video of a black man attacking a white victim throughout.

But as a gift, you can watch that ridiculous demonstration above.

That Time Don Lemon Defended Stop & Frisk:

Speaking of Don Lemon, there was that time he endorsed the controversial and discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy implemented by the NYPD.

“The question is, would you rather be politically correct or safe and alive?” he said.

It was, in a sense, an analogy that suggested the two choices are mutually exclusive…and a flawed one at that. First, because Lemon either didn’t know or decided to leave out the fact that stop-and-frisk practices are making a nominal dent in crime reductions and, secondly, agreeing to be inconvenienced and harassed at the hands of an antiquated and racial practice is an admittance that black people have less rights than white people.

And in the end, that’s shaking hands with the bad guy, no?

That Time They Trivialized Jordan Dunn’s Death By Labeling Michael Dunn’s Trial The “Loud Music Trial:”

Though he later apologized on behalf of CNN, Don Lemon and his fellow hosts continued to label the Michael Dunn trial the “Loud Music” trial — a move that, in a sense, relieved Dunn of his part in the shooting that took the life of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.

But Lemon’s effort to stop the trivialization of the trial and Davis’ death hit another bump when he committed to calling it “The Jordan Davis Murder Trial.”

Reminder: Jordan Davis was the victim. He was not standing trial for his own death. Michael Dunn, the man who was eventually convicted on three counts of attempted murder (though the jury deadlocked on the first-degree murder charge concerning Davis) was the defendant.

But hey, let’s make sure not to demonize the bad guy, amirite CNN?

PHOTO/VIDEO CREDIT: Screengrab, Getty, YouTube