When I wrote last week about how some of the anchors at CNN, including Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, were showing a surprising sense of responsibility and restraint on the officer-involved shooting death of Ma’Khia Bryant, I also noted that I knew the sentiment was unlikely to last long at the network.

The reason is that CNN, more so than even the unhinged cast at MSNBC, is in the “panic porn” business and just cannot resist the urge to further fan the flames and stir up division because they think it somehow helps them in the ratings wars (reality check: it doesn’t).

Sadly, it didn’t take long for them to prove my point. Just a few short days later after Lemon and Cuomo argued in defense of the Columbus, Ohio police officer who made the call to use lethal force against Bryant, CNN’s resident performative journalist Jim Acosta used his platform as a weekend host to throw gasoline on the fire by stating there had been a “rash” of shootings by police officers against black citizens last week (bolded emphasis added):

“As the nation grapples with a rash of police killings of black Americans, many of them happening the same week former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, one of the most prominent Republican lawmakers, Senator Lindsey Graham is denying the U.S. has a problem with race. One of the reasons why, because this country, he says, had a black president.”

But where were Jim Acosta’s receipts on this? We don’t know, because he didn’t share them — not on his program, nor on the Twitter machine even after being called out by Real Clear Politics co-founder and president Tom Bevan, who ripped Acosta a new one in a must-read thread earlier today for spreading a narrative about police shootings that he couldn’t back up. And unlike Acosta, Bevan had the goods to counter the “rash of police killings against black people” claim:

1) @Acosta yesterday: “As the nation grapples w/a rash of police killings of black Americans, many of them happening the same week former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.”

Let’s see the receipts for this claim, Jim.https://t.co/uMQ7dOzvSj

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

2) If @Acosta was relying on this AP story to claim a “rash of police killings of black Americans,” he either didn’t read the story or willingly misled his viewers. https://t.co/EqCVxwB90B

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

When it comes to Jim Acosta, “willingly misled his viewers” is the answer every time.

Bevan continued on:

3) Even setting aside the fact that it appears in almost every one of the 6 instances from the AP article the police were confronting someone who was armed and/or dangerous, @Acosta‘s claim falls flat.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

4) In addition to Ma’Khia Bryant, there were two fatal police shootings in San Antonio. Names and races of the victims were not released by police. In Worcester, a heavily armed 31-year-old man named Phet Gouvongong was killed by police after threatening to detonate a bomb.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

5) In California, a white man carrying a 2 ft long metal pole rushed police officers and was shot dead. He had been arrested more than 200 times for violent assaults.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

6) In North Carolina there was a fatal police shooting of a 42-year-old black man, who was being served for drug and arrest warrants. A witness said he tried to drive away and police opened fire. Officers have been placed on leave and an investigation is underway.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

7) So, to sum up: unless @Acosta knows about a bunch of other incidents that were not reported in the press last week, he misled his audience with an inflammatory claim of a “rash of killings of black Americans” that is not supported by the facts.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

A couple of hours later and after not receiving a response from the normally boastful Acosta, Bevan chimed in again to get his definition for what “rash” means:

Hey @acosta, how many instances are in a “rash?” Asking for a friend. https://t.co/zs77UGuDNK pic.twitter.com/2AKiMxQ3Ps

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) April 26, 2021

And though this should be one of the biggest media-related stories on social media today, so-called “media experts” like CNN’s Brian Stelter, his sidekick Oliver Darcy, and others are ignoring it. What ARE they focused on, though? The fact that Fox News walked back a story about Biden supposedly proposing the country eat less red meat in an effort to battle climate change:

Fox gently acknowledges that its coverage about Biden supposedly trying to force Americans to eat less red meat wasn't accurate: "A graphic and a script incorrectly implied that it was part of Biden's plan for dealing with climate change. That is not the case." pic.twitter.com/iClZSk8P4M

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 26, 2021

So Fox is doing something CNN won't. We're still waiting on CNN to correct their numerous false reports about Trump and other Republicans from over the last four years. @brianstelter https://t.co/HfQJOgNHaF

— Sister Toldjah Le Pew 😁 (@sistertoldjah) April 26, 2021

Gotta love the priorities here. If it’s a misleading story that hurts Biden, it must be corrected/retracted immediately. But if it’s a fake story that further (and needlessly) inflames racial tensions and fuels animosity towards law enforcement, it’s ok because of left-wing narratives and whatnot.

Disgusting, really, but I do not expect any better out of these people. It’s just who they are.

Related: Progressive Writer Drops Facts, Absolutely Nails Media for False Narratives on Columbus Shooting