After news broke Friday afternoon that an arrest had been made for at least eight of the more than 100 bomb threats against Jewish community centers from recent months, CNN's Jake Tapper informed his viewers that the suspect -- Juan Thompson -- held left-wing political views and "hated President Donald Trump." His reporting stands in contrast with the broadcast network evening and morning news casts -- as well as other CNN shows -- that did not inform viewers of the perpetrator's political leanings.
Although the overwhelming majority of recent anti-Semitic bomb threats and acts of vandalism have still not been solved, Thompson's views are nevertheless newsworthy since so much of the dominant media have suggested President Donald Trump has somehow been to blame for the increase in such incidents.
In fact, on the next morning's New Day Saturday on CNN, substitute co-host Martin Savidge -- without noting Thompson's left-wing views -- tried to tie Trump to the other still-unsolved anti-Semitic acts as he turned to liberal Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz and posed: "I think many people see this as an administration, a campaign that seemed to play into these kind of sympathies. But, now that he is President, there really needs to be some concrete and serious action taken."
By contrast, on Friday's The Lead on CNN, host Tapper recalled:
We know from his rather disturbing Twitter feed that Thompson hated President Trump and professed to be a progressive. While bigots on the right have been getting a lot of attention lately, there certainly is no shortage of anti-Semites on the left.
Correspondent Brynn Gingras then elaborated on the suspect's left-wing politics:
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
Thompson planned on running for mayor in St. Louis to, quote, "fight back against Trumpian fascism." He even tweeted sort of bullet points of what he'd run his campaign on. He also tweeted a number of times and joined panels even -- the video you're seeing here on race bias issues.
According to a Nexis search, CNN updated viewers several times between 1:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET on Friday, but only Tapper mentioned Thompson's political views. Similarly, when ABC's World News Tonight and the NBC Nightly News ran full reports, they omitted Thompson's liberal ideology, although NBC's Pete Williams did recall his history of racism against whites: "Thompson has a troubled past. An internet news site -- The Intercept -- says it fired him for falsifying stories. And his Twittter feed is full of racist rants about white people."
The CBS Evening News oddly did not mention the development at all either on Friday or Saturday, although all three broadcast network morning news casts ran similar stories on Saturday morning which omitted the suspect's political leanings.
Below are transcripts of relevant portions of the Friday, March 3, The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN, and the March 4, New Day Saturday on CNN:
#From the Friday, March 3, The Lead:
4:48 p.m. ET
JAKE TAPPER: The FBI says it has made an arrest in connection to about eight of the estimated 100 bomb threats against Jewish schools, community centers, and organizations across the country. The man in custody is Juan Thompson. He is a former journalist fired last year for fabricating journalism. He is accused of making the threats in an attempt to cyber stalk an ex-girlfriend.The FBI says that Thompson made eight bomb threats nationwide, and, in the process, tried to frame the woman with whom he'd broken up. I want to bring in CNN's Brynn Gingras.
We know from his rather disturbing Twitter feed that Thompson hated President Trump and professed to be a progressive. While bigots on the right have been getting a lot of attention lately, there certainly is no shortage of anti-Semites on the left. Does the FBI consider his political views a motive in any way for these threats?
BRYNN GINGRAS: Well, it appears the motive at least stated in the criminal complaint, Jake, was to get back at that ex-lover, but the anti-Defamation League said today Thompson planned on running for mayor in St. Louis to, quote, "fight back against Trumpian fascism." He even tweeted sort of bullet points of what he'd run his campaign on. He also tweeted a number of times and joined panels even -- the video you're seeing here on race bias issues.
But in regards to those threats he allegedly made, federal authorities connect him, as you said, to eight bomb threats against Jewish institutions in four states. Now, he does not appear to be the main person behind the wave of threats, rather jumping on the anti-Semitic acts and doing it to harass his ex-lover.
#From the March 4 New Day Saturday;8:39 a.m. ET
EVAN BURNSTEIN, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: The ADL has proposed an action plan for anti-Semitism with basic steps that the President can take right now to fight anti-Semitism.MARTIN SAVIDGE: Of course, Alan, I mean, I think many people see this as an administration, a campaign that seemed to play into these kind of sympathies. But, now that he is President, there really needs to be some concrete and serious action taken.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: Yeah, I, look, I don't think that Donald Trump is an anti-Semite. I don't think he himself played into anti-Semitism. I think he tolerated it at the extremes of the Alt-Right the way many on the left tolerate anti-Semitism often disguised as anti-Zionism on the hard left.
