Protestor Tells CNN Reporter To Leave, Accuses Media Of Making Things Worse

A protestor’s heated conversation with a CNN reporter in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on Monday night is going viral and raising questions.

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Sara Sidner was covering the second night of protests over Sunday’s killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright at the hands of police during what should have been a simple traffic stop.

Instead, an officer who claims she accidentally pulled her gun instead of her taser shot Wright in the chest, which ultimately killed him.

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Protests broke out following the news, and have been exacerbated as the Derek Chauvin trial over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis overlaps Wright’s death.

While Sidner was live on air near the protest site, one man approached her crew and accused her of “twisting up the story.”

bubbaprog/Twitter

The veteran reporter, who has covered protests in the area in the past, welcomed the man to chat with her over his concerns.

“What I think about this is all the press and all the extra shit y’all do makes this worse,” the man said, pointing towards the protest, fireworks going on in the background.

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“Y’all need to get out of here,” he added.

Sidner offered to exchange numbers with the man to have further conversations about what’s going on, but he declined, insisting they were just going to edit out his comments anyway, not believing that he was live on air during the back-and-forth.

Finally, he told them to really go all the way up into the protest rather than shooting from the outskirts “to make people look all crazier than what the f—k they are.”

Reactions to the clip were split, with some agreeing with the protestor that the media makes things worse for them by focusing on the most shocking aspects of protests for views, while others pointed out that the media has largely been on the same side of the protestors in this story.

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They’re not in the providing solutions game. They’re there to report on what’s going on. That’s their job.

— Bathsheba Dreams in Blue (@Inkling61) April 13, 2021

I was watching live and was so impressed by her. I understand that man as well, he is angry as hell and every right to be. Compelling television.

— High_Life_Zach (@HighLifeLivin1) April 13, 2021

How tf are they supposed to de-escalate this situation? Not report on it? That’s their job and responsibility.

— Chase (@gundchase) April 13, 2021

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If media didn’t cover this, they would say it was a cover up.

— Becca Lynn (@BeccaLynn412) April 13, 2021

Watch the clip again…

The dude walked up to her and he tried to grab the mic. So she did not put it in his face.

Dude dropped like 15 cuss words on live TV so i think her passive hot head comment was legit.

Dan Rather would not have talked to that guy.

— BJ (@Mauk6) April 13, 2021

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The people on the ground can always tell you the truth. Folks are understandably suspicious of being paraded on camera to sell ad time. https://t.co/p1kQzNPfsi

— Rob Anderson for Louisiana (@RobAnderson2018) April 13, 2021

As for Sidner, she later said that “it’s normal” for people to be mad, and she understands why the protestor was frustrated.

“I take no offense,” she wrote. “Emotions are understandably high after the killing of [Daunte Wright].”

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*First Published: April 13, 2021, 6:11 am