CNN employees were unnerved last week when a man repeatedly called into their Atlanta headquarters with death threats.
"I'm coming to gun you all down," the suspect, 19-year-old Brandon Griesemer, reportedly said in his 22 phone calls.
He also used the phrase "fake news" to describe the network.
Anchor Don Lemon seemed to place part of the blame on President Trump, who often refers to CNN as "fake news" or "very fake news."
"There's nothing random about this," Lemon said Tuesday night. "Nothing."
"This is what happens when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, repeatedly attacks members of the press simply for reporting facts he does not like."
While Trump uses his bombastic rhetoric against media he doesn't like, he should "be aware" that some dangerous people may be listening to him, Lemon added.
"And if one of us is hurt or god forbid something else in some way or another because you either don't understand the power of your words and/or you don't care, it won't be a fake injury or sadly a fake death, it'll be real," Lemon said.
"And how will you answer those questions then, not only from journalists but from our loved ones, because you're going to have to do it. Let's hope it doesn't happen."
Trump first used the phrase "fake news" when CNN, BuzzFeed and other media decided to report on an unsubstantiated claim that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Kremlin. The suggestion so frustrated the president that he refused to offer CNN reporter Jim Acosta a question at a testy press conference last January.
The FBI has launched an investigation into the death threats against CNN. Thank goodness no one was hurt.
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