CNN and host Don Lemon are facing increasing backlash from mental health professionals
after a recent discussion featuring guests who mocked hip-hop star and Trump supporter
Kanye West while making derogatory remarks about mental illness.
During the segment, CNN's Tara Setmayer said that "No one should be taking Kanye
West seriously," adding, "he clearly has issues.
He's already been hospitalized," while the rest of the panel gleefully laughed.
The discussion has sparked outrage, and earned CNN harsh condemnation from professors and
experts in the mental health field, who criticized the network and its panelists for "stigmatizing"
those who suffer from mental illness.
Lemon, an outspoken detractor of President Trump and his administration, was called out
by NFL legend Herschel Walker for his remarks on Kanye West, who said he was "appalled"
with the CNN discussion.
CNN host Don Lemon led a panel discussion with three CNN commentators as they gleefully
heaped scorn on Kanye West for meeting with President Trump to discuss prison reform and
for otherwise expressing support for the President (the video is below).
Among other things, West was pilloried for being both ignorant and exploited.
"Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don't read," CNN's Bakari Sellers said.
CNN's Tara Setmayer pronounced him "the token Negro of the Trump administration."
While those comments received some attention (only from conservative outlets, needless
to say), the laughter-driven attacks on West for his well-publicized medical treatment
for mental health issues were largely ignored.
But those comments, broadcast in prime-time by CNN on television and then widely disseminated
by the network on social media, were not just reprehensible, but genuinely dangerous.
"No one should be taking Kanye West seriously," Setmayer decreed.
Why not?
Because, she said, "he clearly has issues.
He's already been hospitalized."
Let's repeat that: No one should be taking Kanye West seriously.
He clearly has issues.
He's already been hospitalized.
Setmayer was referring to West's 2016 hospitalization in Los Angeles's Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical
Center.
In 2018, West spoke publicly and bravely about that hospitalization and the medical treatment
he has received for his mental health struggles, including a bipolar diagnosis.
West described how his doctors found the right balance of medication and therapies and he
decided to speak publicly about his medical treatment because, in his words, "I want
to change the stigma of mental health."
That was precisely the stigma that CNN and its various personalities exploited, played
with and strengthened by weaponizing West's medical treatment against him, using it to
disqualify him as someone who can be regarded as credible or serious.
After mocking West for his hospitalization, Setmayer quickly added: "You know not to
trivialize mental health issues" – something she had just blatantly done and then proceeded
immediately to do again, adding: "but I mean obviously, Kanye has taken a turn in
a very strange way.
You read any of his interviews, go back and read his interview with Charlamagne tha God.
It's all over the place."
Not only did Lemon nor any of the other panelists object, but they maintained their laughing,
giggling tone as this mockery was spouted.
Amazingly, after the segment was aired, CNN seemed not to be ashamed but quite proud of
it, as it promoted it online to its Twitter audience:
It should go without saying that West, as a public figure expressing controversial political
views, is fair game to be criticized, harshly or otherwise, for the substance of what he
says and does.
But exploiting his medical treatment for mental health issues to declare him unworthy of being
heard, or being incapable of cogent thought, is grotesque.
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, particularly those who specialize in the effects of social
stigma on individuals with mental illness, have told the Intercept that the kinds of
comments aired by CNN often prevent patients from seeking the treatment they need due to
the shame associated with these conditions – a fear-driven failure that frequently
results in allowing these conditions to go untreated, sometimes leading to permanent
depression, incapacity and even suicide.
Worse, they said, the CNN discussion exploited, and lent credibility to, bigoted attitudes
toward people who have been treated for mental health conditions, attitudes which often prevent
them from finding employment or even shelter.
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