The presidential election has been looming overhead for ages now, and cable-news coverage of the candidates has been a mess of “he said, she said,” horse-race “analysis” — and racist commentary.

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The cable-news networks’ response to Donald Trump has shed light on the pervasive racism that’s always been part of our media system. These outlets seem incapable of having coherent discussions about race or racism.

Image credit: Xicanisma

Networks like CNN, Fox and MSNBC have consistently failed in their reporting on people of color and Muslims throughout the election cycle. From providing a constant platform for Trump’s hateful rhetoric to painting black people as criminals to justify their deaths, cable news upholds white supremacy.

As Free Press Senior External Affairs Director Joseph Torres has said, “We have a media system that has always been controlled by white folks. And so as a result of that you get news coverage and media coverage always portraying people of color as a threat to society.”

What follows are several examples of cable-news networks engaging in racist reporting.

In March, CNN gave regular commentator Jeffrey Lord the last word in an argument with Van Jones, at which point Lord asserted that the Democratic Party is dividing people by race, saying “race has no place in American life or law … ”

In the rare instances in which racism is named on national television, pundits like Lord declare on air that calling someone racist is engaging in “identity politics,” which is the real act of racism …

In the video below, Rep. Steve King of Iowa makes openly white supremacist comments to Chris Hayes on MSNBC’s Republican National Convention pre-game show. He says: “This whole ‘white people’ business, though, does get a little tired … I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute to civilization?”

Hayes did not directly refute Rep. King’s comments during the segment, but later responded via Twitter:

“The media’s framing of terrorism often spreads Islamophobic ideas, perpetuating stereotypes that put the safety of Arab Americans — and anyone who’s seen to fit the erroneous stereotypes — at risk.” — Everyday Feminism

During a CNN Tonight segment, host Don Lemon asked Iranian-American author and scholar Reza Aslan if Islam promotes violence.

There are countless examples of this kind of fear and distrust of Muslims:

Meanwhile, the mainstream media’s coverage of police brutality often presents Black victims as criminals, as people to fear. This stands in contrast to the media’s treatment of white perpetrators of violence, including white mass killers, who are depicted as misunderstood “social misfits.”

The media portrayal of white supremacist terrorist Dylann Roof, who killed nine black people in a South Carolina church, versus the portrayal of a black victim of gun violence — who died saving his mother’s life — is particularly disgusting:

Collage via Everyday Feminism

This is how the media portrayed James Holmes, who murdered 12 people in a Colorado movie theater, and Ferguson shooting victim Mike Brown:

Collage via Everyday Feminism

This is how NBC Chicago portrayed Sandra Bland after she died in police custody after being arrested for a minor traffic violation:

“The media chooses which parts of our lives to show — and their choices often humanize white people while vilifying people of color.” — Everyday Feminism

A CNN commentator the network pays for his supposed “expertise” goes on live television and says that black people are prone to criminality. Watch from 2:42–3:20:

This needs to stop.

We will be continuing the conversation on the media’s coverage of race and dog-whistle politics in NYC on Oct. 18 with award-winning journalist Juan González of Democracy Now!, New York Times bestselling author and Free Press Senior External Affairs Director Joseph Torres, Brandi Collins of Color of Change, senior staff writer Zak Cheney-Rice of Mic, and national race and inequality reporter Tanzina Vega of CNNMoney.

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