When Don Lemon was arrested last week, I knew that the Left would call it an unprecedented attack on a free press. I was right, of course, because that behavior is as predictable as the sun rising in the east.
A grand jury indicted Lemon on two counts under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act: one charge of “conspiracy against right of religious freedom at a place” and one charge of "acting to "injure, intimidate, and interfere with exercise of right of religious freedom."
He was released without bail, and maintains he was acting in the capacity of a journalist.
I can't help but notice a difference in how conservatives, both journalists and civilians, are treated versus the way Lemon has been treated.
Just last January, independent journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt finally settled a yearslong case with the state of California after then-Attorney General Kamala Harris charged the two with multiple crimes in relation to their reporting that exposed Planned Parenthood illegally selling the body parts of aborted babies. That process lasted almost a decade, during which the pair were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the courts, in addition to any legal fees they racked up defending themselves. Merritt had to post $75,000 for bail in the California case, and I'm sure Daleiden did, too, although I cannot find a credible number on that. To top it off, the state of California lied after Daleiden and Merritt entered their "no contest" plea deals, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a “felony conviction” of the two. Instead, under the plea deal, Daleiden and Merritt received "no jail time, no fines, no admission of wrongdoing, and no probation," according to the National Catholic Register.
That's an admission the state of California didn't have a case against the pair, and a judge even ruled in 2019 that only nine of the 15 charges could be brought to trial.
When Steven Baker covered the events of January 6 as a journalist, he was not informed of the charges against him by the Biden DOJ until he turned himself in. Baker did, and he was placed in handcuffs and leg irons and transported by armed agents. Some media outlets cheered Baker's arrest, with places like The Hill asking if Baker was a "journalist, advocate, or advocacy journalist."
NEW: Blaze News Investigative Journalist, Steve Baker Arrested by FBI for January 6 Riot Reporting.
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) March 1, 2024
The federal agencies are weaponized by the government to go after anyone who dares to report the truth. pic.twitter.com/UOM2KoE4Mh
Baker pled guilty to the charges in November, 2024. He was later pardoned by President Trump.
But the process was the punishment.
The same can be said for Mark Houck, the pro-life husband and father who woke up to the Biden FBI raiding his home on the morning of September 23, 2022. The agents were armed and pointed their weapons at the Houck family before taking Mark into custody. Like Lemon, Houck was charged under the FACE Act after confronting an abusive abortion activist outside of a clinic in 2021 — Houck was not tried in state court, and the activist's lawsuit against Houck failed, too. But the Biden DOJ wanted to put Houck behind bars for 11 years and $350,000 in fines. Houck was acquitted in January 2023.
Nearly a dozen other pro-life activists faced similar charges under the FACE Act. Several, including Jean Marshall and Joan Bell, were convicted under the FACE Act. So was Paula Harlow, who was convicted for praying in the doorway of an abortion clinic. She was sentenced to two years in prison at the age of 76, with the judge mockingly telling Harlow to "pray" over her health concerns.
Not one person currently screaming about the FACE Act being used to rightly charge Don Lemon and his pals cared a bit about Daleiden, Merritt, Baker, Houck, and the rest. Many of them cheered those prosecutions, because their preferred ox (abortion) was being gored or, in Baker's case, their false narratives were being exposed.
Meanwhile, Don Lemon hasn't been asked to surrender his passport (he even gets to take his summer vacation to France), and he showed up at the Grammys last night, too.
Don Lemon steps out at the Grammys days after being taken into custody by federal agents. https://t.co/BK9E6u63mE
— TMZ (@TMZ) February 2, 2026
📸 Getty pic.twitter.com/KUuwwPlctN
Have you spotted the difference? Lemon gets to go about his life as if he did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the lives of other journalists and average Americans are thrown into chaos, using the full weight of the federal government. And I suspect if Democrats get back into power, we'll see more Bakers and Houcks than we will Lemons.
"For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law."
