As the targeted violence in this country continues, it is becoming obvious that the media are in a precarious position of their own making. Extremism is growing, and it is a development as a result of either their acceptance or willful avoidance of the subject. A prime example of the latter occurred when CNN looked at a disturbing act of violence in Boulder, Colorado and dispatched its expert on the matter… to ignore the case entirely.

CNN has been at the forefront of this reaction, with their pundits becoming enraged that the FBI’s Kash Patel and Dan Bongino dared to declare that a man who firebombed Jewish citizens over his announced opposition to the Israel-Palestine war committed an act of terrorism. They followed up this bizarre reaction with another revealing example from their broadcasts.

On Anderson Cooper’s “AC 360,” he brought on the network’s designated extremism correspondent, Donie O’Sullivan, who was reporting from Colorado. O’Sullivan is the reporter who recently made a special for the network on extremism in the country in which he declared he could not find examples of political extremism on the left. He then followed this genius hot take by sitting with the ever-disturbed Taylor Lorenz, and the two were giggling over the infatuation with confessed murderer Luigi Mangione.

This was the man with empirical wisdom on the topic of political violence, appearing on prime time. So, what did the extremism expert deliver to CNN’s audience about the firebomb attack Sunday, and the background and motivations of the extremist who launched Molotov cocktails at a crowd and injured children and a Holocaust survivor?

Nothing.

It turns out Donie was on scene in Denver, to cover something ostensibly far more important – the trial of the My Pillow magnate, Mike Lindell. Currently, Lindell is facing a defamation lawsuit from an employee of Smartmatic Voting Systems, one of two suits brought against the businessman over his comments regarding the 2020 election results. 

O’Sullivan delivered the pertinent details of the case and spoke with Lindell directly. He reported how the jury pool faced questions about the type of pillows they use, noting that many were dismissed if they attested to owning a My Pillow of their own. Then he wrapped by suggesting to Anderson Cooper that he could provide the host with his very own pillow. (The host declined the offer, for full disclosure.)

So there you have it. The network priding itself on being on the cutting edge of breaking news sees a grievous, hate-filled political attack and spends the next days telling us how not to describe what happened, re-framing the events, and now sending correspondents out to distract with alternate reports from the area. It really is no mystery why we keep seeing examples of this antisemitism cropping up. It is less of a mystery why this network continues to dissolve on a regular basis.