A CNN anchor revealed that she and her family have received death threats related to recent news coverage. TheWrap.com reports that Ashleigh Banfield disclosed on the air Monday that she had received threats on social media over her coverage of the racially charged Michael Dunn trial.
“Call it back, folks!” Banfield said Monday while on air. “Stop threatening to kill people on Twitter because you don’t like what they are saying! That’s the problem. If we can’t communicate, we are never going to know what the problem is. And this is a case that outlines it.”
She added, “I have had it with people who are threatening me, and my kids, and my family over simply commenting on the law and criminal procedure and respecting juries. Because they do work hard. They work way harder than I do and they work way harder than the rest of those people making those peanut gallery comments.”
Dunn was found guilty of four of five charges, but the jury deadlocked on the murder charge, the story notes. Dunn was on trial for fatally shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis in a fight over loud music, according to ABC News.
Ashleigh Banfield
I’m against any sort of censorship of communications but it’s time that people be held responsible for their actions and statements online. I got death threats just for reporting that the SF series FARSCAPE had been cancelled. Some nutcase posted my home address and the schools my kids attended with instructions on how to ‘get back at me’. Something has got to be done to discourage this kind of behavior.