Soledad O'Brien Blasts Mainstream Media For Normalizing White Supremacy

Soledad O’Brien is calling out CNN for their consistent news coverage of Donald Trump supporters who identify as white supremacists.

The former CNN host says some media outlets have gone to great lengths to maintain their unbiased support of the presidential candidates by making things seem equally as bad or good on both sides, even in cases where Trump or his supporters were clearly in the wrong. O’Brien specifically mentioned the questionably frequent coverage of white supremacists or those with views similar to that of white supremacy. 

“If you look at Hillary Clinton’s speech where she basically pointed out that what Donald Trump has done — actually quite well — has normalized white supremacy,” O’Brien told CNN host Brian Stelter on Sunday. “I think she made a very good argument, almost like a lawyer. Here is ways in which he has actually worked to normalize conversations that many people find hateful.”

She later elaborated on her thoughts, adding that her former employer and other mainstream media networks have often overlooked the fact that some of their election cycle “guests” are racists and interviewed them anyway because they are speaking out in support of a presidential nominee.

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“I’ve seen on-air, white supremacists being interviewed because they are Trump delegates,” she said. “And they do a five minute segment, the first minute or so talking about what they believe as white supremacists. So you have normalized that.” 

O’Brien rounded out her thoughts by indirectly addressing the dangers of Donald Trump and cable news networks giving white supremacists platforms where they can comfortably express racist, hateful, elitist views. 

“The thing that [I’m] talking about is are [media outlets] “softening the ground for people — who are white supremacists, who are white nationalists, who would self-identify that way — to feel comfortable with their views being brought into the national discourse to the point where they can do a five minute interview happily on national television?”

Hear Soledad’s comments in full in the video clip below.