On Sunday's World News Tonight, the show picked up on complaints by liberals accusing FNC host Laura Ingraham of making "racist" comments about the NBA's LeBron James on her show in which she criticized him for his recent slam against President Donald Trump.
The worst thing about ABC's pre-recorded report was that, although the news team were clearly aware of Ingraham's response since they used a portion of it, they omitted the key explanation that her choice of words was a takeoff on her book, Shut Up and Sing, as the conservative talk radio host has had a long history of calling out liberal celebrities both white and black.
In the show's opening, ABC host Tom Llamas teased the report: "Racist remarks? The Fox News TV host under fire after telling LeBron James to, quote, 'shut up and dribble.'"
A bit later, showing images of Ingraham and James on screen with the words "Racist Remark?" underneath, Llamas set up the report: "Fox News host Laura Ingraham accused of making racist remarks over James's political statements after telling him to quote, 'shut up and dribble.'"
Correspondent Eva Pilgrim began her piece by declaring that LeBron James "is not backing down" over the criticisms Ingraham made about him on her FNC show. After playing a clip of James claiming that President Trump "don't give a f*** about the people," then came a clip of the FNC host: "Keep the political commentary to yourself, or, as someone once said: Shut up and dribble."
After Pilgrim recalled that Ingraham's comments led to a "lighting up" of social media, viewers then saw two edited clips which only showed a small portion of Ingraham's on-air response and defense of her words.
INGRAHAM CLIP #1: Many claim my line that LeBron should "shut up and dribble" was racist. Uh -- what?
INGRAHAM CLIP #2: If you're a white NBA player and you said that stuff that he said -- about Obama -- you'd never play again.
Pilgrim then ended the report by informing viewers that James already had a previous history of complaining about President Trump, and that Ingraham has invited him onto her show,. The ABC correspondent did not inform viewers that the FNC host's words were a reference back to her book which many of Ingraham's audience members would be well aware of, and therefore get the point of her comment.
By contrast, even far-left MSNBC anchor Joy Reid at least played a larger portion of Ingraham's response as the AM Joy host led a discussion to trash Ingraham and Fox News.
