CNN host Brian Stelter on Sunday confronted the leader of a group of citizen journalists who shouted down a broadcast by one of his CNN colleagues last month in Ferguson, Mo.
Stelter rolled tape of the group’s livestream from October, in which they drowned out a report from CNN correspondent Sarah Sidner with shouts of “Shut it down!” and “CNN’s been lying.” Anchor Don Lemon eventually abandoned the segment.
“Even if I didn’t work with Sarah, I’d say that’s pretty disturbing to watch, it’s scary stuff,” Stelter said.
He then asked self-described citizen journalist Bassem Masri about the incident.
“We’re not going to be just laying back and letting anybody paint whatever narrative they want when it comes to our community,” Masri told Stelter. He further complained that the mainstream media painted mostly peaceful protests as violent.
But Stelter argued Masri had been recorded elsewhere “trying to provoke” police officers instead of correcting the media. He played a local news clip of Masri calling cops “pigs” and saying he prayed for their deaths.
“Aren’t you trying to poke the police there, trying to get more views, maybe?” Stelter said.
“I don’t mean any of that stuff that I said, and we’re not trying to provoke violence, nothing like that happened,” Masri responded.
Watch below:
