CNN finally decided to send someone to cover the Kenosha, Wisconsin riots and violence last night. Until then, that work was being left up to outlets like Townhall and The Daily Caller, who have had correspondents in the thick of things, telling the the truth about what is happening with documentary evidence. Of course, if you expected CNN to show up and actually report honestly, that didn’t happen. But let’s be real, no one was expecting that.

Instead, what was produced was one of the most surreal scenes in news history. It was so bad that some people were asking if it had been photo-shopped. To say it was Baghdad Bad levels of gaslighting is not an exaggeration.

You cannot make this up… A CNN reporter is standing in front of a building engulfed in flames and CNN's chyron reads:

"FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING" pic.twitter.com/4OHvKnh63u

— Kelb Hull (@CalebJHull) August 27, 2020

Just looking at the scene in the background, it looks like a war zone. Cars and buildings are on fire as the reporter tries to sugarcoat things, pushing the narrative that the protests were fine during the day. Then a chyron pops up proclaiming that the protests are “mostly peaceful” despite the fact that there are literally fires raging in the live shot. Are the producers on these shows not smart enough to see the optics they are creating? Putting up lying chyrons as flames lick in the background and having the reporter extol the virtues of the rioters makes them look ridiculous. And to be clear, that’s exactly what the reporter did. He didn’t condemn the destruction in his one minute hit. Instead, he painted a picture of righteous, justified anger leading to the violence we are seeing.

Of course, none of the actual evidence justifies anything that’s being done by these mobs of BLM supporters. Blake was a wanted criminal who resisted arrest, assaulted an officer, ignored commands to stop, and then tried to reach into his car, either for a weapon or to attempt to drive away with three children. At the very worst, this a situation where a cop may or may not have made the right call to fire his weapon. What this is certainly not an example of is racist police targeting black men. Yet, these cases continue to be lumped together with a total disregard for the facts of each individual situation.

CNN is on the precipice of that effort, stoking hatred and division while actively lying about the realities on the ground. They are doing all that knowing the results it will bring and they simply don’t care. Everything is about defeating Donald Trump at this point.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)