***The complete post is on NewsBusters***
For over five minutes (5:26) Friday evening, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt personally led the network’s defense of radical progressive L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon, who’s facing a popular recall effort just two weeks after San Francisco liberals managed to get rid of theirs. And as part of this full-throated defense, Holt blamed local news reporting for stoking a false “public perception” of the crime situation in the city.
“Less than two weeks after San Francisco voters ousted their progressive district attorney, a similar recall effort is gaining speed tonight in Los Angeles County. D.A. George Gascon, defending himself from critics who say his criminal justice reform policies have contributed to rising crime,” Holt lamented as he led into the segment.
After playing a couple of soundbites from local news reports about the out-of-control crime wave gripping the city, he suggested those local reports had “amplified” the “growing sense of unease” and caused a “shift in the public's perception, shaking the ground in southern California.”
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