Paris Dennard on CNN Fredo Flap: 'Yet to Hear an Apology to the Black Community'
Neither CNN nor Chris Cuomo have offered “an apology to the black community” for repeated use of the mocking label “Fredo,” despite both describing the term as an “ethnic slur” and an equivalent to “the n-word,” noted Paris Dennard, former CNN contributor, on Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Dennard examined CNN’s pretense as a non-partisan and politically objective news media outlet, highlighting CNN’s plethora of Never Trump personalities marketed as “Republicans.”
“It seems as if they masquerade as someone who wants to have Republicans on, right?” asked Dennard of CNN’s political veneer. “They say, ‘Let’s put on some Trump supporters,’ but the moment the Trump-supporting person on the network gets popular or gets really good, they find a reason to bench them or to take them off, but they’ll keep the Republican on that might be a Never Trumper or someone who is against the administration on into perpetuity.”
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CNN “benched” its own contributor Steve Cortes, said Dennard, after Cortes joined PragerU to present a video titled, The Charlottesville Lie.
CNN terminated its contract with Dennard following a viral exchange he had with CNN analyst Phil Mudd. Dennard’s contributorship was ended by CNN on the basis of years-old allegations publicized by the Washington Post in December 2018. CNN retained Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, two of its prime time hosts, following the former’s threat of violence against a man referring to him as “Fredo” and the latter being sued for sexual assault against another man.
“They try to silence the voices of conservatives that are supportive of the administration, and all they have to do is fund a justifiable — in quotes — reason in their mind, and they do it, whereas they’ll keep on people like Chris Cuomo or like Don Lemon or Ana Navarro who just say the most outlandish things or do the most outlandish things, and they just keep them on,” Dennard said. “It is a clear double-standard, and I think the American people and the viewers are onto it, which is probably why their ratings are what they are.”
Dennard continued, “I think it’s a very clear double standard. I think if you look at the way CNN handled — or is handling — Don Lemon, the way they handled Kaitlan Collins and her very disgusting tweets about homosexuals and how somebody who happened to be gay at the network came out and defended her statements, I think there’s a double standard in how they treat Republicans or Trump-supporting Republicans and how they treat ones that are their favorites. It’s clear. It’s apparent. There’s disparate treatment. What happened to me can happen to anybody.”
False accusations of racism diminish legitimate racism, Dennard remarked.
“It minimizes the true racists,” Dennard estimated. “It minimizes the actual impact of the word, which is disgraceful, which is horrific, which is disgusting when it comes down to the root of it, and where it comes from, and how it is used. So when they just throw out, ‘President Trump is a racist,’ or, ‘Fredo is the n-word equivalent,’ when you do that to people who aren’t racist, like the president, and words like ‘Fredo’ which aren’t the equivalent of the n-word, it cheapens and minimizes the actual racists that are alive and well in this country, and the actual phrases and words that people use either overtly or covertly to demean and dehumanize whole genders and races of people. That is the problem. They’re cheapening it, because they have nothing else to go on but to just insert the race card.”
Dennard went on, “It’s not responsible to have Chris Cuomo lead conversations about race based upon his own definition of the word ‘Fredo,’ because he said using the word ‘Fredo’ is like using the n-word, and he has used it himself, and allowed it to be used on his show. He loses all credibility, and he has lost all credibility. That’s why I believe that it is not true — I don’t think he believes it, but he said it — and so CNN and others should act on it and say, ‘Okay, if you believe that, then why did you use it, and why did you allow it to be said on your show by Ana Navarro?'”
Democrats and the broader left blame “racism” for their political losses in order to evade responsibility for their lack of appeal, assessed Dennard. “The reason they [blame their failures on racism] that is because they have nothing else to talk about. The reason why they have Andrew Giillum who lost and Stacy Abrams who lost — and they both quickly pivot to voter suppression and racism, [claiming] that’s the reason why they lost — is because nobody has any responsibility, and it’s the easiest thing to point to and to blame.”
“I have yet to hear an apology to the black community from Chris Cuomo or from the network for utilizing that phrase — live on air — on multiple occasions by the host himself,” observed Dennard. “That’s not going to happen and it has not happened because they don’t believe it. Not only is it not true that it’s the equivalent, they don’t believe that it’s true. What they do is put it in the atmosphere that it is so that it lays in the mind of the American people that watch this show.”
Dennard concluded, “The fake rage of the left is so disgusting.”
CNN previously marketed itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News.” Its new slogan is, “Facts First.”
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