Media

Brian Stelter Airs Death Threat Aimed At Don Lemon, Himself

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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CNN’s Brian Stelter, on his Sunday show “Reliable Sources,” aired a death threat that was aimed at both himself and fellow CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Stelter played back audio of a C-SPAN caller who said that, if he ever ran into him or Lemon on the street, he would shoot them.

“They started the war,” the caller said, “If I see them I’m going to shoot them.”

Stelter made it clear that his goal was not to elicit sympathy, and that he was not actually in fear for his life. “I know some of my colleagues get much worse threats than I do,” he explained. “And CNN has a great security team, and we know how to handle this stuff.”

The larger point Stelter was making was that threats against journalists were on the rise. “And this problem is not confined to CNN,” he continued. “People at Fox News and other outlets have to deal with this garbage too. These kinds of threats are coming more often.”

Attributing the rise of threats to “the Trump era,” Stelter noted that MSNBC’s Katy Tur had also recently received a number of vile threats.

Stelter conceded that there have “always been unhinged people in the world” — a fact that can’t be tied to President Trump — but ended on a quote from New York Times’ Bret Stephens: “We are approaching a day when blood on the newsroom floor will be blood on the president’s hands.”

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