CNN Has a Racism Problem
CNN has a practice of hiring political commentators who espouse more hate than actual political commentary.
Pundits like former NYPD detective Harry Houck are on the payroll allegedly to provide “expert” political opinion, when really they’re there to boost ratings and page clicks with their racist views.
Earlier this week, on the show New Day, Houck claimed that Black people are “prone to criminality.” This is a flat-out lie, yet anchor Chris Cuomo did little to question or negate Houck’s racist assertion.
The discussion in question was about racism in police departments in the aftermath of the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. The other guests were Morehouse professor and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill and former NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks. All possibility of conversation was derailed when Houck went on a racist diatribe only a few minutes into the conversation.
Houck used “statistics” that were supposedly from “the NYPD” to back up his racist claim. Anchor Chris Cuomo didn’t question the source or validity of Houck’s numbers; instead, he supported Houck, saying police interact with Black people more “… because of socioeconomics and criminality.”
It was left to Marc Lamont Hill to respond to Houck’s hate — which he did swiftly, but with frequent interruptions from both Houck and Cuomo.
HILL: Harry’s still on national TV and just said that Black people are prone to criminality. I want to be able to respond to that.
HOUCK: Well, they are.
HILL: You think Black people are prone to criminality?
HOUCK: The statistics ...
HILL: You don’t mean that. I’m going to give you a chance to correct that. You don’t mean that Black people are prone to criminality.
Then Houck began shouting over Hill and eventually Cuomo cut in to chastise the two for failing to have a civilized conversation due to “clashes in perspective.” Cuomo then asserted that Houck didn’t really mean to say that an entire race is prone to criminality, even though that was exactly what he said.
Hill again tried to get a word in to address the “statistics” that allegedly supported Houck’s racist claim — but Houck, like a toddler having a temper tantrum, tried to silence him, saying “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
This segment is yet another example of how the mainstream media shapes conversations about race and policing in a way that harms Black communities. If someone looked to this show for news and political analysis, the only takeaway would be the false and dangerous narrative that Black people are more prone to violent crime than white people.
This raises the question of why a news organization like CNN would pay for commentary from a racist like Houck, who has been on the radar of civil rights organizations for years. In fact, our allies at Color Of Change have been circulating a petition demanding that CNN replace Houck with someone capable of discussing the state of racism and over-policing, as his false statement about Black criminality was far from his first offense.
Through the platform CNN has given him, Houck has long made racist statements targeting the Black community. Over and over again he’s blamed victims of police brutality for their own murders, and continually refers to Black people as “thugs” on Twitter.
Another mass shooting by thugss at a rap concert in NYC 1 dead 3 injured. What a surprise!
— Harry J Houck (@harryjhouck) May 26, 2016
More black thugs robbing and assaulting people! #BlackCrimeMatters https://t.co/R5p43xmfZz
— Harry J Houck (@harryjhouck) November 21, 2015
#BlackLivesMatter mission is to turn criminals into victims and cops into criminals.
— Harry J Houck (@harryjhouck) October 18, 2015
You people is NOT a racist comment it's political correctness and I don't buy into it!
— Harry J Houck (@harryjhouck) December 1, 2015
Were lucky its a Black Judge in Freddie Gray case if he were white #blackthugsmatter group would cry racisim!
— Harry J Houck (@harryjhouck) June 23, 2016
CNN should not be paying commentators who routinely spout racist nonsense. It’s one thing to foster a diversity of views in your news programming — but it’s something else entirely when you pay someone to spread hatred. A news organization with any degree of integrity shouldn’t pretend that a notorious racist like Houck is going to offer anything close to legitimate political commentary.
But hiring racist political commentators isn’t CNN’s only transgression.
Chris Cuomo's complicity
The fact that anchor Chris Cuomo did nothing to challenge Houck’s lie about Black criminality is disturbing.
Journalists are supposed to dig for the truth and provide reporting that’s both accurate and inclusive of multiple communities. By giving Houck the benefit of the doubt and allowing him to continually interrupt Hill and Banks, Cuomo prioritized the talking space of the one white commentator on the show and allowed his racist views to come off as truth. This is unacceptable.
CNN is increasingly de-legitimizing itself as a “news source.”
From its persistence in giving airspace to pundits like Houck to its hiring of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the network is prioritizing on air-controversy and lazy reporting over actual journalism. While it may be easy enough to dump CNN in the trash with Fox News (and change the channel), the network’s decline is part of a larger problem: how mainstream media reports on communities of color — and too often upholds violence against these communities.
Media outlets like CNN impact what viewers believe about the world, how they engage politically and how they treat the people around them. This is why we must challenge a media system that perpetuates racism, because each inadequate, trope-riddled story contributes to violence against communities of color. And there’s already so much violence against Black communities in particular: from law enforcement, the criminal justice system, the education system — the list goes on.
We need a media system that can name and challenge this violence — or at least refrain from contributing to it with racist reporting.
