The Friday edition of CNN This Morning closed out with a small blue-on-blue scuffle as host Audie Cornish told Vox podcaster Noel King, "Don't laugh," when she was discussing a Massachusetts lesbian bar that recently upset its customers by partially removing its COVID mask mandate. At the same time, New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro insisted, “This is complicated.”
At the end of the show, Cornish let each of their panelists briefly discuss a more light-hearted subject. King began her turn by explaining that “A bar in western Massachusetts—”
Cornish couldn’t believe King would pick that topic as she interrupted with great excitement, “You're doing the lesbian bar?” As King started laughing, Cornish invited her to continue, but not before Garcia-Navarro chimed in with, “This is complicated.”
In a blue-on-blue scuffle, CNN's Audie Cornish felt the need to tell Vox podcaster "Don't laugh" as she discussed that Massachusetts lesbian bar's patrons freaking out over its partial mask mandate recission. The New York Times's Lulu Garcia-Navarro insisted that "This is… pic.twitter.com/JKLwIN972V
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 25, 2026
Struggling to report the ridiculous news with a straight face, King recalled, “A bar in western Massachusetts had a mask mandate in the year of our Lord 2026. They decided one day a week they're going to lift the mask mandate. Their patrons turned on them and said—”
Cornish interrupted again with a plea that King “Don't laugh.”
King obliged with an exaggerated attempt to stop laughing before continuing, “—that they were committing genocide against people with long COVID. It's Western Massachusetts, okay? So—”
Again, Garcia-Navarro tried to act as if absurd was nuanced, “But the article has to be read. The point is, like, this is not something that can just be talked about.”
Cornish concluded by observing, “Like, it would have been heresy to tell these people, you—‘No, okay, we believe in science. You wear the mask. This, this and that.’ And now, even on the left, it became a, kind of, joke of excess and ideology.”
While King wasn’t wrong to find the story humorous, there is also a darker, much less humorous aspect to the story as well. The pandemic is over and has been for some time, yet apparently some people think it is appropriate to threaten arson against a bar that only recently decided to barely relax its onerous mask mandate. Part of the reason for that reaction is because people like Garcia-Navarro insist on coddling them by pretending their fear that showing their face in public is going to get them killed is “complicated.”
Here is a transcript for the September 25 show:
CNN This Morning
9/25/2026
6:58 AM ET
NOEL KING: A bar in western Massachusetts—
AUDIE CORNISH: You're doing the lesbian bar?
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: It's—go ahead. Explain to the audience.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is complicated.
KING: Okay, a bar in western Massachusetts had a mask mandate in the year of our Lord 2026. They decided one day a week they're going to lift the mask mandate. Their patrons turned on them and said—
CORNISH: Don't laugh.
KING: —That they were committing genocide against people with long COVID.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS: What?
KING: It's Western Massachusetts, okay? So—
WILLIAMS: Okay. Whatever.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But the article has to be read.
KING: The article – The Boston Globe—
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The point is, like, this is not something that can just be talked about.
KING: Subscribe to The Boston Globe.
(CROSS TALK)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The way that article is written is beautiful.
KING: Beautiful.
WILLIAMS: Awesome
CORNISH: But it also is reflective of the times we're in now, right?
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: Like, it would have been heresy to tell these people, you—“No, okay, we believe in science. You wear the mask. This, this and that.” And now, even on the left, it became a, kind of, joke of excess and ideology.
KING: Yes.
