Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Friday's CNN This Morning, the liberal news network was back to its old ways as the show gloated over one of the Central Park Five members running successfully for public office while former President Donald Trump is fighting off an indictment.
Fill-in co-host Victor Blackwell set up the eight-minute segment by informing viewers that Yusef Salaam won the Democratic primary for New York City Council earlier in the week, and misleadingly suggested that he and the other Central Park Five members had been proven innocent years after they were convicted of raping a jogger in 1989:
It's been a rise. What a rise it has been. Yusef Salaam -- one of the "Exonerated Five," formerly known as the "Central Park Five" -- this week won the Democratic primary for a New York City Council seat in Harlem. Salaam was wrongly accused in 1989 and then convicted along with four other black and Latino teenagers of raping a jogger in Manhattan's Central Park. He spent nearly seven years in prison before DNA evidence emerged linking someone else to the crime. And they became known -- as I said -- as the "Exonerated Five."
Blackwell then made sure to bring up former President Trump and remind viewers that he is under indictment while Salaam is headed for a likely election to the city council:
Former President Donald Trump -- then still a local figure -- took out a full-page newspaper ad that read, 'Bring Back the Death Penalty -- Bring Back Our Police." Trump now has been indicted on criminal charges in New York over hush money payments while Salaam -- who is not expected to face a serious general election opponent -- is poised to help lead the city.
While Trump was President, CNN repeatedly complained that, back in 1989, Trump responded to the near fatal attack by calling for New York to legalize the death penalty again for murder cases.
As Salaam appeared live in studio, he recalled that he was named after the prophet Joseph, leading co-host Poppy Harlow to follow up by underscoring this comparison of the ex-convict to a biblical prophet:
You refer to Scripture and what it tells us about what Joseph endured. It's so similar to the path that you endured. But then you've also said, "God gives us a permission to live life." Can you just speak to how your faith has guided you to this moment and how it will guide you leading the city?
In a later followup, Harlow quoted her guest's mother comparing the prosecution of her son to an attack by the KKK:
Your mother, Sharonne Salaam, spoke to the New York Times, and I was so struck by her quote... she remembered what it was like walking into the precinct, right? Which you never came out. For seven years, you never came out of prison. And she said, "Walking into that precinct, it was like after all of those years it was like the Klan had finally come after me." Talking about the Ku Klux Klan and how they went after your grandfather.
Harlow then cued up her guest to explain how he would like to change the criminal justice system: "How can you in that seat change the justice system -- change the impediments that are still there?"
It was not mentioned that there was substantial evidence that Salaam and the other four members of the group not only had taken part in attack more than a half dozen people in Central Park on that day in 1989, but that they probably also took part in a gang attack on the jogger.
By contrast, CNN weekend anchor Michael Smerconish in 2019 allowed one of the arresting cops in the case to appear on his show and argue that they were guilty in spite of the city's decision to vacate the convictions. He explained why DNA evidence could not rule out partial involvement in the attack by the five juveniles.
It has been pointed out that a few members of the group -- Kevin Richardson in particular -- gave a remarkably accurate description of what the victim looked like in their recorded confessions, thus suggesting they had come into contact with her.
This episode of CNN This Morning was sponsored in part by PC Matic. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN This Morning
July 7, 2023
7:27 a.m. Eastern
YUSEF SALAAM, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: You saw where I was on the ballot. Started from the bottom. Now I'm here.
VICTOR BLACKWELL: It's been a rise. What a rise it has been. Yusef Salaam -- one of the "Exonerated Five," formerly known as the "Central Park Five" -- this week won the Democratic primary for a New York City Council seat in Harlem. Salaam was wrongly accused in 1989 and then convicted along with four other black and Latino teenagers of raping a jogger in Manhattan's Central Park. He spent nearly seven years in prison before DNA evidence emerged linking someone else to the crime. And they became known -- as I said -- as the "Exonerated Five."
Now, the case against Salaam and the other accused teenagers dominated New York headlines and drew national attention. Former President Donald Trump -- then still a local figure -- took out a full-page newspaper ad that read, 'Bring Back the Death Penalty -- Bring Back Our Police." Trump now has been indicted on criminal charges in New York over hush money payments while Salaam -- who is not expected to face a serious general election opponent -- is poised to help lead the city. Years after his exoneration, Salaam talked about how that day in 1989 turned his life upside down.
SALAAM (pre-recorded clip): I was telling the officers the truth, and they took my words, and they twisted it. I said, "I'm going to go to the cops, and I'm going to tell them what I saw, and I'll be home before my mon gets back." I came home seven years later.
BLACKWELL: Yusef Salaam joins us now. Sir, good to see you. Congratulations on the primary win. Public service and public office. When did this become a goal? When did it become a dream?
SALAAM (live in studio): My goodness. I think, early on, you know, when I first read Scripture about a prophet named Joseph -- who I'm named after -- I said, "Is it possible?" And, of course, I was 16 at the time. And I kind of buried it and said, "Ah, you know, maybe, you know," kept on trying to make sure that I didn't succumb to the pressure of what prison was trying to turn me into, which was a monster. And, of course, years later, now, here I'm looking back at that journey -- the journey that I've come through -- and I'm saying to myself, "Wow, all of the things that happened -- every single piece -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- has prepared me for this moment right now."
POPPY HARLOW: You refer to Scripture and what it tells us about what Joseph endured. It's so similar to the path that you endured. But then you've also said, "God gives us a permission to live life." Can you just speak to how your faith has guided you to this moment and how it will guide you leading the city?
(SALAAM)
BLACKWELL: Speaking of being on the menu, your life being decided for you, I mentioned the full-page ad back 30 years ago now from Donald Trump. I want to put the side-by-side of his ad and your ad after his arraignment. The similarities are clear here. What does this moment mean to you in that context? And what do you say to him now?
SALAAM: You know, it's the juxtaposition of knowing that we are in a divided states of America. We've constantly been trying to unite us as a people, and the type of energy black people have always had has been energy of love -- of acceptance -- of equality and equity. We've never wanted revenge. That's never who we've been as a people. But the juxtaposition of never being able to see here a sitting -- well, a former President -- has received what I called "karma" in this life. It's -- it's -- it's us being able to put the mirror up to all of us as Americans and say, "Hold on, if the 'Exonerated Five,' as we are now known, did not get justice 35 years ago in a country that says you're innocent until proven guilty -- in a county that says slavery is alive and sick because of the punishment of crime, is this going to be a moment where we will finally see justice? And I'm saying that, in the reality of knowing, if we were actually guilty of these crimes, we should have gone to prison, but we weren't guilty.
HARLOW: Your mother, Sharonne Salaam, spoke to the New York Times, and I was so struck by her quote because she was out there campaigning with you. She was up in Harlem on 125th Street, and she remembered what it was like walking into the precinct, right? Which you never came out. For seven years, you never came out of prison. And she said, "Walking into that precinct, it was like after all of those years it was like the Klan had finally come after me." Talking about the Ku Klux Klan and how they went after your grandfather. How can you in that seat change the justice system -- change the impediments that are still there?
(SALAAM)
BLACKWELL: And now you are bringing that full life experience -- a full narrative -- to the New York City Council. Yusef Salaam, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Again, congratulations on your primary win.