CNN's Don Lemon tells journalists to not 'coddle' GOP over 'extremism' within party
CNN host Don Lemon warned journalists to not give both sides equal treatment and hold Republicans to a tougher standard over the "extremism" within their party.
Appearing on CNN's New Day Thursday morning, Don Lemon once again urged the media to hold Republicans to a different standard than Democrats in their media coverage.
The primetime host tied the GOP to the threat of "growing extremism" on the right. He warned journalists to not give a "false equivalence" to both sides, and instead acknowledge Republicans were endangering America.
"We sit around and we talk about these things and we want to give this false equivalence to Democrats and Republicans. That is not where we are right now. Republicans are doing something that is very dangerous to our society and we have to acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that as Americans, we must acknowledge that as journalists because if we don't, we are not doing our jobs," Lemon declared.
A Pew survey of nearly 12,000 journalists found that a majority of journalists, 55%, reject the idea that both sides "always deserve equal coverage."
CNN host Don Lemon on "New Day," argued that it was the media's job to hold Republicans accountable for extremism within the GOP.
Lemon was referring to Republicans who continue to support former President Trump after the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, as well as the recent Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"They have to answer for those questions if they come here on CNN, they must answer for that. If they go on MSNBC, they must answer for that. If they go on ABC, they must answer for that. And they cannot expect to be coddled when they go on to a news organization or if they step in front of a crowd of supporters or voters or Americans."
He made a similar plea in June, saying, "we cannot pretend as journalists" that both sides are "equal."
Studio shot of red and blue chess pawns symbolizing US Democratic and Republican parties - stock photo. (Tetra Images/Getty Images) transposed with the logos of CNN, MSNBC and NBC News.
Lemon referred to an interview he did with a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers saying Republicans had become associated with "extremists." He rejected any Republican opposition to that belief.
"You have the inmates running the asylum basically. You have the extremists because I know there are Republicans sitting out there going, ‘Don Lemon that's not what we are.' Maybe it's not what you are but it's what party has become and what you have allowed to happen," he lectured.
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Americans have less confidence in the media than they have in decades, according to a recently published Gallup Poll. Only 16% of Americans said they have a "great deal or quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers in 2022, while only 11% said the same about television news.