On Monday's CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon devoted two segments totaling more than 13 minutes to the case of rapper Meek Mill going back to prison because of parole violations. The show glossed over Mill repeatedly violating probation over the past decade, which included the rapper failing drug tests over and over again.
And last week, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt similarly downplayed Mill's parole violations, and did not mention the repeated drug test failures from the probation period at all.
On CNN Tonight, Lemon began by recalling statistics finding that blacks make up a disproportionately high percentage of the prison population, and then went to a setup piece by correspondent Stephanie Elam, who recalled:
It was 2008 when Mill was found guilty by Judge Genece Brinkley of illegally carrying a gun as well as drug charges related to that same arrest. Mill spent eight months in prison and got five years probation. When Mill was released, he returned to music ... His career was taking off.
But in 2014, Mill violated his probation when he traveled out of state for a performance. Judge Brinkley sent him back to prison for nearly five months. She also reinstated his probation conditions. Then, in March 27, Mill was arrested for a scuffle at the St. Louis Airport, and then again in August -- this time in New York for popping wheelies on a dirt bike. The video posted to social media.
Judge Brinkley cited a failed drug test and travel violations when she sent Mill back to jail for two to four years. The move went against the recommendations of the district attorney's office and Mill's probation officer, and it was called excessive by Mill's supporters.
Elam did not mention that Mill had failed a drug test repeatedly over the years. He was also admonished at one point for inciting death threats against the judge by writing about his case on social media.
Lemon was then seen spending several minutes interviewing Mill -- who is in prison -- by phone, and then in the next segment his attorney, Joe Tacopina, with the two discussing the possibility that Mill's original conviction will be overturned because one of the police officers has been deemed untrustworthy.
Last Thursday, Holt similarly devoted almost four minutes to the story on the NBC Nightly News. He introduced the report:
We are hearing from the Philadelphia rap superstar whose stiff sentence over probation violations has garnered national attention and calls for criminal justice reform, and even enlisted the support of Jay-Z. So compelling is Meek Mill's story, that his prison visitors have included everyone from billionaire sports moguls to the mayor of Philadelphia.
Holt recalled: "His troubles began in 2007 when he was 19 -- convicted on gun possession and drug charges. He served just seven months back then, but Mill has never gotten off probation. And even though he hasn't been convicted of another crime, he's back in prison."
The NBC host soon added: "He got arrested again twice. Last year, he was caught popping a wheelie on a motorcycle and was also involved in a separate altercation. Both charges were dismissed. Even so, Judge Janice Brinkley found him in technical violation of his probation, and, in November, sentenced him to two to four years in prison."
Holt omitted the fact that Mill had not only tested positive for illegal drugs on a number of occasions during his parole period, but that he had been arrested initially in part because he was accused of threatening police officers with a gun.
By contrast, last November on CNN's Smerconish show, former Pennsylvania state legislator Bryan Lentz had argued that, even though he is personally in favor of reducing sentences for some offenders, Mill's case was not so sympathetic since the judge had been soft on him back in 2008 by giving him more probation but less jail time.
