Scott Pelley tells the NYT that Bari Weiss directly put a “thumb on the scale” for Trump over the killing of Renee Good
Fired CBS 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley has accused editorial management at his old network of interfering with a broadcast segment looking at an immigration officer’s killing of Minneapolis protester Renee Good in January.
The veteran broadcaster, who was recently dismissed from the show, said CBS News’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had sent an email to his supervisor requesting changes be made soon before the airing of the segment in question.
In an interview with the New York Times published on Sunday, the 68-year-old Pelley accused Weiss of injecting “falsehoods and bias” into programming.
Pelley told the outlet: “Two of the things in the email include, ‘Can we make the protesters look more violent?’ Now, I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the quote, but that’s what was communicated to me. And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.”
Pelley maintained that was the direction contained in the email even though video of Good’s shooting did not support such a conclusion.
Don Lemon’s attorney just released this statement after the Trump regime arrested him over his reporting.
More here from the NYT.
And below the cut because of NYT's paywall.
The former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested late Thursday night on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., his lawyer said, in a case rejected last week by a magistrate judge.
Mr. Lemon has said he was simply reporting as a journalist when he entered the Cities Church on Jan. 18 to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown in the area.
The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.
But the magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people, rejecting the evidence against Mr. Lemon and the others as insufficient. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Lemon, vowed to fight the charges.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” Mr. Lowell said in a statement on Friday. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done.”
Mr. Lowell added, “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
Mr. Lemon is scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday morning. Now that he has been arrested, he is likely to challenge the prosecution’s case by arguing that he was not protesting, but rather covering the event as a journalist.
“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization,” Mr. Lemon said in a recent video. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
Mr. Lemon now works as an independent journalist and has his own YouTube show. He was pushed out of CNN in 2023 after 17 years at the cable network, amid criticism that he made sexist comments about women and aging. Mr. Lemon has been a longtime critic of Mr. Trump dating back to his first term, and frequently calls the president a liar.
Justice Department officials have vowed to prosecute protesters they claim have crossed a line from activity protected by the First Amendment to impeding law enforcement or, in the case of the church protest, violating others’ rights.
For their part, demonstrators who have turned out in force in Minneapolis have asserted that their rights are being violated as they try to speak out against the crackdown.
Tensions remain particularly high in Minneapolis after federal immigration agents fatally shot two protesters there. Renee Good, a mother of three, was behind the wheel of her car this month when an ICE agent fired at close range. Administration officials branded her a terrorist and claimed that she endangered the life of the agent.
In a separate episode, Customs and Border Protection agents on Saturday shot and killed Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse. Videos from the scene undercut early claims by administration officials that Mr. Pretti approached the agents, brandishing a weapon.
President Trump suggested on Wednesday that he was willing to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, without providing details. He replaced the Border Patrol official who has been the public face of the aggressive immigration efforts in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, with his border czar, Tom Homan. Mr. Homan has signaled a willingness to reach an agreement with local officials and draw down the thousands of federal agents sent there.
The arrest of Mr. Lemon come against the backdrop of turmoil inside the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis. At a tense meeting earlier this week, a number of prosecutors challenged the head of the office about the administration’s decision not to pursue investigations of the shootings by federal agents, according to people familiar with the internal discussions. At least a half dozen prosecutors have resigned, and more departures are expected.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has called on other federal prosecutors’ offices in the Midwest to send temporary reinforcements to help investigate and prosecute cases.
Katz had said Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi would be ousted over leaked Sde Teiman footage; new military advocate general to be selected
I just want to highlight that of all the asks I get about Sde Teiman, people never acknowledge that OFFICERS WITHIN THE IDF ITSELF approved the leak of the videos that resulted in the world knowing about this and the legal proceedings now taking place against the perpetrators.
This lady did the right thing, and that's why you even KNOW about Sde Teiman.
Now, when is the last time Hamas ever handed over evidence of their wrong-doing and used it to prosecute their members for war crimes against Jewish civilians? Never. They proudly release footage of them committing the war crimes and encourage MORE crimes to be committed, lol.
President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins as she peppered him with uncomfortable questions about Jeffrey Epstein. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile," Trump said. Even when the press conference was over, he didn't let it go. The blow-up has sparked plenty of reaction on Wednesday. On her CNN show Tuesday night, Collins told her audience the Epstein scandal is nothing to smile about.
I kind of wish Alya and Vincent had a series-long rivalry?
So I was re-watching Revelator not that long ago in preparation for ‘Mister Agreste’ and whichever episode is going to be accompanying it, and I realised that, given the clear rivalry/parallel shown between Alya and Vincent as journalists/influencers, it felt like a huge missed opportunity not to expand on that rivalry early on in the series, which I feel like the writers are trying to make up for here. Before this episode, Vincent had only appeared in the episode Pixelator, but his two appearances so far have showcased him as being the embodiment of everything wrong with modern-day journalism/online influencer platforms - the blatant misinformation and sacrificial of factual accounts in favour of sensationalism, his lack of integrity in the way he manipulates the narrative of his stories to garner more personal attention, and his complete willingness to ruin people’s lives if it garners him any attention (case in point, his smear campaign against Marinette and Ladybug in Revelator). A large criticism of Alya’s character has been how she continually seems to fall into the sensationalist trap or taking people’s word at face value instead of fact-checking or properly considering the impact her stories on the LadyBlog and as an aspiring journalist could have on people’s lives, but by establishing Vincent as Alya’s series-long rival, you could properly establish the difference between the two of them and showcase Alya in a more positive light. For example, when Lila’s at the peak of her influence at school, have Alya be more sceptical of her claims and maybe want to dig further into Lila supposedly being Ladybug’s best friend (because even if she’s sceptical, she can’t pass up the opportunity to see if this *is* true), whereas Vincent uses her claims to bolster his own popularity with no regard for the truth, even mocking Alya for being too slow when she actually tries to step back and look at the situation properly.
If you’re familiar with the Insomniac Spider-Man video games, basically imagine Alya and Vincent as being like Dani and J. Jonah Jameson respectively where Dani’s more of a fact-based aspiring journalist with a positive view on the heroes, whereas Jonah is more experienced but tends towards sensationalism and runs his talk show with a heavily biased/anti-superhero narrative. In fact, seeing Alya defend Ladybug, Chat Noir and the other heroes against Vincent’s slander would make for a *great* episode.
Julie Bindel’s piece in today’s Australian. She examines a few issues related to gender ideology, but specifically Tickle v Giggle & examples of the ABC’s favourable treatment of Tickle.
