CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter on Tuesday lashed out at social media users sharing videos of anti-ICE riots across Los Angeles, accusing them of “seeking clicks, clout and chaos” and “preying on fears.”
“Offline, in real-world Los Angeles, most Angelenos are having a perfectly normal day,” Stelter posted on X. “But online, the fires and riots are still raging. Seeking clicks, clout and chaos, unvetted social media accounts are preying on fears about where last weekend’s clashes will lead…”
“The powerful algorithms that fuel social media platforms are feeding users days-old and sometimes completely fake content about the recent unrest in L.A., contributing to a sense of nonstop crisis,” Stelter wrote in a reply to his post.
The remarks come as videos circulating on social media have shown rioters shutting down the 101 Freeway, vandalizing cars and businesses, and assaulting police officers in an attempt to protest the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump has ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen “to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” and on Monday deployed 700 Marines to protect federal buildings and personnel in Los Angeles.
Stelter, who was fired in August 2022 amid CNN’s purge of controversial personalities but returned to the left-leaning network in September, on Monday dismissed videos of the riots as misleading because they could be “hours old, or even days old.”
“You might be looking at a video of something, wondering what’s happening in L.A.—it’s actually from two days ago,” Stelter said. “It only matters because it can give people a false impression of what’s actually happening at a moment of unrest.”
“You gotta be careful at a delicate moment like this to look at the timestamps, look at the dates, look at when things are actually posted and if they’re really from the situation they’re purporting to be,” Stelter went on.
Stelter is not the only public figure to suggest that videos of the Los Angeles riots are misleading.
Former vice president Kamala Harris said the riots have been “overwhelmingly peaceful,” while Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) has denied any violence whatsoever at the riots.”Don’t think that somehow, because they called out the National Guard, there was violence,” Waters said. “There was no violence. I was on the street. I know.”
The 86-year-old Democrat urged the public not to “just rely on what you’ve been told or the few incidents that you saw.”
The Trump administration has ramped up deportations of illegal immigrants. Under border czar Tom Homan, ICE has arrested over 158,000 illegal aliens, around 75 percent of whom have criminal convictions or pending charges, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The post Brian Stelter Dismisses Videos of LA Riots as ‘Seeking Clicks, Clout, and Chaos’ appeared first on .
