CNN’s Chris Cuomo argued Thursday morning that displaying intentionally proactive cartoons of Islam’s chief religious figure is tantamount to shouting the “n-word.”
Cuomo’s remarks came as he questioned political activist Pamela Geller for attempting to promote the winning cartoon in the “Draw Muhammad” contest she hosted earlier this month in Garland, Texas, that nearly resulted in a mass casualty event.
Geller defended her proposal to have train stations and buses in Washington, D.C., decorated with the winning entry.
“The media and the political and academic elites are censoring this cartoon and we think the American people should see that you are self-enforcing the Shariah,” she said.
Cuomo then accused the political activists of being intentionally provocative. She promptly dismissed his suggestion, calling it “nonsense.”
Cuomo then replied, “The n-word gets treated the same way that depictions of Muhammad does. We don’t say it because it’s offensive, not because legally I can’t.”
It was Geller’s turn to be unimpressed as she accused the CNN host of pushing a “false narrative.”
Nevertheless, Cuomo kept at it, continuing to question the wisdom of Geller’s plans.
“Since when do you care about being offensive?” she asked before circling back to Como’s “n-word” comparison. “It’s not analogous … it’s outrageous. It’s a dishonest narrative and I am not going to debate intellectual dishonesty.”
The two parted ways shortly thereafter, neither one any more convinced of the other’s position then before they sat down for the interview.
A few hours after the CNN interview concluded, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority suspended all “issue oriented ads” through the end of the year, according to WUSA-TV.
The decision to drop the advertisements, which generate $20 million annually in revenues, comes after Geller announced that she would launch a campaign to have cartoon images of Muhammad displayed on the city’s buses, the network’s Bruce Leshan said.
(h/t TheBlaze)
