Viewers of CNN’s “New Day” must have been terribly confused when afternoon anchor Brooke Baldwin popped up out of the blue to retract and apologize for something unspecified. Baldwin never once told the audience what it was she was talking about.
Because the decision was made not to disclose the reason for the retraction and apology, the whole thing came off as a bizarre non sequitur:
CHRIS CUOMO: You jumped into it yesterday while it was going a hundred miles an hour and there’s a learning curb for you as well.
BROOKE BALDWIN: There is, and I just wanted to make sure I came on first thing this morning and just tell everyone I made a mistake yesterday. We were in the middle of live TV, I was talking to a member of congress, and I was recounting a story — a conversation I just had with someone recently just referring to police, and I absolutely misspoke. I inartfully chose my words a hundred percent, and i just wish, just speaking to all of you this morning, and I wholeheartedly retract what I said. I’ve thought tremendously about this, and to our nation’s veterans — to you, I have the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform, and I wanted you to know that this morning. So to all of you, I owe you a tremendous apology. I am truly sorry.
CHRIS CUOMO: The story’s going to keep going. We need you here. You’re one of our best. Everything that happens, you learn as you go. And this kind of situation is like that for all of us, more than most. It’s always good to have you here… [grabs Baldwin and pulls her in for a hug] you know that we all need you on the team.
For those of you who don’t know, during a Tuesday afternoon interview with Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings, Baldwin said of our veterans who become police officers, “I love our nation’s veterans, but some of them are coming back from war, they don’t know the communities, and they are ready to do battle.”
The dangerous, damaged veteran is of course the most unfair smear and rancid stereotype anyone has ever come up with.
The uproar was immediate. At first Baldwin tried to put the blame off on some unspecified person. Finally, she took to Twitter to apologize.
Baldwin needs to tell the CNN audience exactly what she did and then offer the apology above. Hiding the truth of what she did, is simply bad journalism. You can’t retract something without saying what it is you are retracting. This is a serious matter and full disclosure is a must.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC