In a Fox News interview that aired Monday night, Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to justify the Department of Justice’s decision to arrest journalist Don Lemon by arguing that his reporting was an “attack-style infiltration” of a Minnesota church.
Lemon was arrested last Thursday along with independent reporter Georgia Fort after they both reported on an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul.
“They were caravaning to this church to perform an attack-style infiltration of the church service on a Sunday morning,” Bondi complained to pro-Trump host Sean Hannity.
Both the video that Fox ran alongside Bondi’s appearance along with Lemon’s video of his report show journalism, not an “attack.” Lemon explained to viewers what protesters hoped to accomplish—shaming a pro-ICE pastor—and went on to interview both protesters and the pastor about the controversy.
Lemon’s actions are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the government from infringing on speech or faith.
Almost as absurdly, Bondi claimed that Lemon “confronted” the pastor and that “the pastor will say that he was scared, his parishioners were scared” and compared the moment to the hostility of a recent church shooting.
But in the video playing as she spoke, Lemon calmly interviewed the pastor and at one point the pastor even smiled at a question from the reporter.
Bondi’s decision to make the accusation on Fox News, where hosts regularly eschew serious journalism in favor of cheering on the Republican Party and figures like President Donald Trump, certainly makes logical sense. In fact, interviewer Sean Hannity has often operated as a senior-level adviser for Trump.
Both Lemon and Fort, who have since been released from federal custody, have said they will fight the charges and will continue their reporting despite Trump’s attempt to silence them.
On the Friday edition of his YouTube show Lemon said, “It may have started with people having their due process rights violated on the streets, violently violated on the streets. But now they're trying to silence journalists. And I will not be silenced.”
In a CNN interview, Fort said, “If they can criminalize a journalist here in Minnesota, whether you're independent or not, I think that we've seen a track record where this is just going to continue to escalate.”
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The arrests fit in with Trump’s pattern of opposing free speech rights for his critics or people and institutions accurately reporting on his actions. It has taken the form of direct arrests but Trump has also shaken down the parent companies of news media entities for payoffs, in hopes of staving off critical coverage.
Additionally Trump has sued outlets like The New York Times for billions of dollars, alleging that accurate reporting of his misdeeds and corruption is a form of “defamation.”
ICE agents have taken their cues from senior leadership and have threatened journalists reporting on their actions, including abusive behaviors. Yet despite the attacks and over-the-top rhetoric, reporting, journalism, and free speech continue on.
