About Fredrika Whitfield's "Verbal Gaff"

Fredricka Whitfield

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFmNMTVFIE)


Yes, it's got to be hard to speak (on TV or radio) for a living. People are prone to all kinds of errors and miscues. Hell, some folks (like Al Sharpton, for instance) can't even read from a teleprompter ("Sta-lewis....Ah, I mean Saint Louis"), but some verbal gaffs are more telling than others.

This past Friday, CNN host Fredricka Whitfield called James Boulware (the deranged gunman who was killed during an attack on the Dallas Police Department) "courageous and brave," while talking with CNN legal analyst Philip Holloway.

Apparently caught up in a giddy excitement over the incident, Ms Whitfield said, "“It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the police headquarters, and now you have this scene, this standoff...”

Mr Holloway immediately distanced himself from those sentiments saying, "fortunately only the attacker was killed during this attack."

Over the weekend, Ms. Whitfield gave what amounted to a non-apology, which amounted to a rationalization, delivered with visible disgust and a contempt for her audience. All of it amounted to her blaming her audience, for "misunderstanding her." Her indignation is visible during this 15 second non-apology. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhT_KYu6O_4).

What's most troubling about this alleged "gaff," is that it doesn't seem to be a matter of "mis-speaking" at all, especially since it ties so neatly into Ms. Whitfield's and CNN's decidedly anti-police bias.

CNN loves plane crashes (especially missing planes) and race stories (white-on-black ONLY, and since they're especially rare, they've often turned to making "victimes" out of black perpetrators who've attacked police and gottten injured or killed in the process). Apparently Ms Whitfield's pique was over CNN "not having her back," given their general support for this anti-police narrative.

So, WHY didn't CNN back Ms Whitfield?

Well, apparently lionizing a maniac who shoots up a police station from an armored van, is a bit over-the-line even for the editors at CNN, or at least it BECAME "over-the-line" once the public outrage began flowing in.

Today (Monday, June 15th, 2015) Fredrika Whitfield went on-air with Brooke Baldwin to make yet another apology (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQMR10LU8U). In this latest statement, Ms Whitfield says, "...and I understand NOW how offensive it was..."

Now, that seems honest enough...and yet, frightening too, for in that one line she admits that initially she didn't really see any basis for either outrage, nor offense to her calling a deranged man intent on killing as many police officers as he could, "courageous and brave...if not crazy, as well..."

So Ms. Whitfield didn't see anything wrong, nor reasonably offensive in lauding, even appearing to root for a man who attempted to kill Police Officers!

That shouldn't be all that surprisng, as those sentiments are shared by any number of public officials (both elected and non-elected) and many in the media, almost certainly many of Ms. Whitfield's bosses over at CNN.