CNN hosts Sara Sidner and Brian Stelter (Photo: Screen capture)
CNN morning news host Sara Sidner made it clear that she is not intimidated by the recent arrest of two journalists for covering a Minneapolis protest inside of a church.
Speaking to Brian Stelter about their former colleague and friend Don Lemon, Sidner said she wouldn't be intimidated.
"That is stark. It is reality. There is, as we have spoken about, the potential of a major chilling effect, although I certainly am not going to shut my mouth. I know that you won't either. There are many journalists that will continue to to call a spade a spade," said Sidner.
She noted that it might be easier for large outlets like CNN who have the corporate protection to defend it's staff.
"There is a definite fear here, especially for those who are independent journalists, who are smaller, who don't have an apparatus around them as they are out in the streets, or if they go into, buildings, whether or not they are protected and whether they have the means," Sidner closed.
Stelter read a comment from Lemon ally Jennifer Welch, who told Lemon, "You are a prize for them. An independent, gay, black, happy, successful man. And this is an attempt to intimidate and beat you down."
He added that agents also arrested former NAACP president Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer.