“Police investigating after a Black woman was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi,” an X post from The Lead on CNN read, accompanied by a reporter hit that aired Wednesday from Omar Jimenez on the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune.
Fortune was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned house earlier this month. Her death is undoubtedly tragic, and the circumstances are being investigated. But CNN appeared to be more interested in trying to insinuate her death is emblematic of racism in America by invoking the imagery of a racist lynching and by breezing past additional reported details surrounding Fortune’s death.
Jimenez stressed that little is known about the circumstances and that police have not said whether her death is considered suspicious, nor have they identified a suspect. But police have also similarly not suggested it was racially motivated either — so naturally, CNN decided to make the crime about race (or at least try).
“The raw imagery of a black person hanging from the tree in the American South evokes a very painful history,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez then tried to reinforce the racist undertone by grouping Fortune’s death with two other lynchings in the area before noting the other two individuals were reportedly to have died by suicide (and one of the deceased was white).
Two suicides and one death under current investigation do not establish a pattern of racism, but noting the three deaths together before emphasizing a “painful history” in “the American South” certainly seems like an attempt by CNN to create the appearance of racism.
But even more telling are details Jimenez left out of his report.
Four days before CNN aired its report, local station WLBT reported that Terence Anderson, described as “a person of interest in connection with the death” of Fortune, had been arrested on an unrelated charge. Anderson, who is also black, “had been interviewed in connection with the death of Tasia Fortune,” according to the report. Anderson “denied involvement with her death” and has not been charged in relation to it, but reportedly said the two had been arguing. WLBT reports that police say the “two were in a relationship” though Anderson said this was not the case. Notably, Anderson reportedly lives near the crime scene.
To be clear, Anderson has not been charged with Fortune’s death. But these details are obviously important context to provide the audience as they try to make sense of Fortune’s death. In fact, these details are far more relevant for Jimenez’s report than invoking a history of lynching to try and make the point that America is a systemically racist country.
Nonetheless, CNN omitted this key context in what appears to be a disingenuous attempt to exploit Fortune’s death to peddle a favorite legacy media claim that America is a racist country with a racist past.
