On Friday, CBS This Morning co-host and wealthy Democratic donor Gayle King declared that “we all need to take a class” from a radical Black Lives Matter activist who justified looting, rioting, and property destruction during a profanity-laced tirade posted to YouTube. Apparently CBS thinks someone making such extreme statements and part of a group founded by “trained Marxists” should be our teacher.
At the top of the fawning segment, co-host Tony Dokoupil – who once tried to sell socialism by comparing the economy to a pie – hailed far-left activist Kimberley Jones for trashing “rigged” American capitalism: “Jones is getting nationwide support for her powerful video that compares the economic plight of black Americans to a rigged game of Monopoly.”
He touted how his fellow left-wing elites were thrilled by the radical, threatening message: “Her raw, unscripted speech on YouTube has been viewed more than two million times, and it’s also been shared by a number of celebrities, from Lebron James to Madonna.”
Only brief, edited clips of Jones’ rant were shown during the report:
So for 400 rounds of Monopoly, you don’t get to play at all. Not only do you not get to play, you have to play on the behalf of the person that you’re playing against. You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them, and then you have to turn it over to them.... How can you win? You can’t win. The game is fixed.
What the broadcast hid from viewers was Jones unleashing a torrent of profanity as she painted looters and rioters as victims, even calling on them to “burn this bitch to the ground!”:
Let’s ask ourselves why this country, in 2020, the financial gap between poor blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel like their only hope and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it....That they feel like their only shot, that they are shooting their shot by walking through a broken glass window to get what they need....So when they say, “Why do you burn down the community? Why do you burn down your own neighborhood?” It’s not ours! We don’t anything!...There’s a social contract that we all have, that if you steal or I steal, then the person who is the authority comes in and they fix the situation. But the person who fixes the situation is killing us! So the social contract is broken! And if the social contract is broken, why the [bleep] do I give a shit about burning the [bleep] hall of fame, about burning a [bleep] Target! You broke the contract! When you killed us in the streets and didn’t give a [bleep]! You broke the contract when for 400 years we played your game and built your wealth!...You broke the contract, so [bleep] your Target! [bleep] your hall of fame! As far as I’m concerned, they can burn this bitch to the ground! And it still wouldn’t be enough. They are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge!
Rather than hold Jones accountable for her wildly irresponsible rhetoric, correspondent Jericka Duncan offered a puff piece:
Kimberly Jones’ video titled “How can we win?,” is part outrage, part history lesson. She says for the 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in what is now the United States, they’ve been playing a game stacked against them....The Atlanta-based activist, former bookseller, and young adult author, has used the Monopoly analogy to teach finance and economics to teenage girls. But this was the first time she used it to explain systemic racism in such stark terms.
In a softball interview with the reporter, Jones demanded “incremental plans, some form of restitution, for these communities.” Duncan wondered: “And when you say restitution, what are talking about?” Jones announced: “I’m going to say the taboo word than everybody hates, reparations. I think we are owed reparations.”
After the taped exchange, Duncan promoted how the far-left activist was planning to leverage her online fame: “Jones plans to publish a book based on that video, which has more than two million views on YouTube as of right now. She also said, Gayle, that she wants to really work with people in her community to groom candidates for local elections.”
At that point, King revealed what a fan she was of Jones’ unhinged diatribe:
She’s already making a change. First, I can’t wait to read the book...I was blown away by her eloquence and her passion and the way she put it so succinctly....I think we all need to take a class from Kimberly Jones. I’m so glad you talked to her. Love to meet her.
The dangerous media obsession with enabling Marxist radicals who preach violent action has reached a fever pitch. CBS no longer has any credibility as a “news” organization.
This promotion of far-left radicalism was brought to viewers by Toyota and Value City Furniture. Let these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the July 10 segment:
8:18 AM ET
TONY DOKOUPIL: Activist Kimberly Jones is getting nationwide support for her powerful video that compares the economic plight of black Americans to a rigged game of Monopoly. Her raw, unscripted speech on YouTube has been viewed more than two million times, and it’s also been shared by a number of celebrities, from Lebron James to Madonna. Our national correspondent, Jericka Duncan, spoke with Jones about her important message.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: The Rigged Game?; Activist Kimberley Jones on Systemic Racism & Economic Inequality]
KIMBERLEY JONES: So for 400 rounds of Monopoly, you don’t get to play at all. Not only do you not get to play, you have to play on the behalf of the person that you’re playing against. You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them, and then you have to turn it over to them.
JERICKA DUNCAN: Kimberly Jones’ video titled “How can we win?,” is part outrage, part history lesson. She says for the 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in what is now the United States, they’ve been playing a game stacked against them.
JONES: How can you win? You can’t win. The game is fixed.
DUNCAN: The Atlanta-based activist, former bookseller, and young adult author, has used the Monopoly analogy to teach finance and economics to teenage girls. But this was the first time she used it to explain systemic racism in such stark terms. She also referenced atrocities black communities faced decades after slavery ended.
JONES: For 50 years you finally get a little bit and you’re allowed to play. And every time that they don’t like the way that you’re playing or that you’re catching up or that you’re doing something to be self-sufficient, they burn your game.
DUNCAN: You talk about Tulsa, you talk about Rosewood, these were communities that were burned down by white mobs in the 1920s.
JONES: Yeah. This idea that we should just, like, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps is ridiculous when people are not ready to discuss the ripple effect that slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, all of that has had on our communities.
And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.
DUNCAN: Jones’ passion is rooted in the numbers. Black households earn just over $41,000 per year, compared to $70,000 for non-Hispanic whites. And black families have a median net worth of $17,600, compared to $171,000 for white families.
JONES: There was all of this systemic racism that was allowed to just happen without repercussion when people were building the wealth that they could have passed down generationally. That was taken from them. We have to reckon with that when we talk about the economic disparagement of the black community.
DUNCAN: How do you do that?
JONES: Well, I think the first thing is to just get the education, that people need to listen.
JOHN OLIVER [LAST WEEK TONIGHT, HBO]: There’s one person I saw this week whose words have been echoing around my head.
TREVOR NOAH [THE DAILY SHOW]: That captured a story that so many people have struggled to tell.
JONES: People are listening, they’re understanding. I think the next step is to start to put in incremental plans, some form of restitution, for these communities. Whether you look at health care, education, you know, food insecurity, all of that is reverted back to economics.
DUNCAN: And when you say restitution, what are talking about?
JONES: I’m going to say the taboo word than everybody hates, reparations. I think we are owed reparations.
DUNCAN: Where did we go from here?
JONES: I think that the best thing that we can do is to get out and vote. But that’s only step one. We also need to pull together our community and make sure that the people that are those ballots are people that are from that community, that have the same desires for that community.
We need to have real conversations and we need real actionable items about what we’re going to do next in order to see some real justice and some real change in this nation.
BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS: What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!
DUNCAN: Does this time feel different?
JONES: I think this time feels very, very different. Particularly because it’s happened on such a global scale. And I think people have become passionate about it in a way that we haven’t seen since the civil rights movement. And I do think that in five years we’re going to see a healthier, happier America.
DUNCAN: Jones plans to publish a book based on that video, which has more than two million views on YouTube as of right now. She also said, Gayle, that she wants to really work with people in her community to groom candidates for local elections. She understands the power there with people voting and said that’s where she also wants to make a change.
GAYLE KING: She’s already making a change. First, I can’t wait to read the book, Jericka. Ava Duvernay sent me that video and I was blown away by her eloquence and her passion and the way she put it so succinctly – something I’m not doing now. I think we all need to take a class from Kimberly Jones. I’m so glad you talked to her. Love to meet her. Thank you, Jericka.
