Journalist [sic] Don Lemon and three other people were arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and federal officials.
Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.
If you believe that, you might be interested in buying a bridge in Brooklyn. The article adds:
Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said these arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home send a clear message discouraging journalists from documenting opposition to the Trump administration
“This is all about intimidation. And it appears that this administration does not like being scrutinized by the public and journalists. They don’t want people to see what they’re doing,” McBride said. It’s an additional burden on independent journalists who don’t have the backing of media organization to pay for their defense.
This is very different from how the AP addressed the topic of journalists arrested regarding the J6 protests: "Some Jan. 6 defendants try to use journalism as riot defense." That article states:
The Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January created a trove of self-incriminating evidence, thoroughly documenting their actions and words in videos and social media posts. Now some of the camera-toting people in the crowd are claiming they were only there to record history as journalists, not to join a deadly insurrection.
It’s unlikely that any of the self-proclaimed journalists can mount a viable defense on the First Amendment’s free speech grounds, experts say. They face long odds if video captured them acting more like rioters than impartial observers. But as the internet has broadened and blurred the definition of a journalist, some appear intent on trying.
At least eight defendants charged in the Jan. 6 riot have identified themselves as a journalist or a documentary filmmaker, including three people arrested this month, according to an Associated Press review of court records in nearly 400 federal cases.
And these weren't just nobodies. Those arrested included Steve Baker (Blaze Media) and Owen Shroyer (Infowars), as well as others that, like Lemon, were simply "independent journalists". Just another example of the bias and hypocrisy of the Associated Press.
I would also note that multiple federal judges refused to sign off on charges against Lemon, but not a single judge to my knowledge questioned the propriety of the arrests of the journalists covering the J6 protestors that entered the Capital Building.
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