CNN’s subscription-based streaming platform, CNN+, has hired former NBA star Rex Chapman to anchor his own show when CNN+ debuts in the coming months, the network announced on Tuesday.
Chapman, whose most recent TV experience is hosting “Block or Charge” on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, has been caught spreading factually incorrect information and, when confronted, he has refused to correct the record. He also believes hospitals should turn away unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.
National Review’s David Harsanyi greeted the news by calling Chapman an “unapologetic content thief” regularly caught “regurgitating the most predictable and witless conservative-bashing.”
Chapman, a former University of Kentucky basketball great who overcame opioid addiction, poured gasoline on the fire of racial strife by falsely claiming that the police officers who shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in her apartment had gone to the wrong door.
“Guys, never forget that Breonna Taylor’s killers were at the wrong house,” he tweeted on September 23, 2020. “The wrong house.”
As The Daily Wire’s Jeff Cawood reported, the idea that the Louisville, Kentucky, police force arrived at the wrong address before opening fire is “perhaps the most prevalent false belief” about the March 2020 fatal shooting. In reality, police had a warrant to arrest a suspected crack dealer named Jamarcus Glover at any of the multiple addresses they believed he used for cover. One of them belonged to Breonna Taylor.
“Taylor’s name, birth date and social security number are listed on the warrant,” according to a fact-check performed by the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The myth that law enforcement had no right to enter her apartment originated with a message that attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family, posted on Twitter. (As of this writing, Crump’s Twitter profile still sports a blue checkmark.)
A follower tried to correct Chapman that he had repeated an error that had been widely debunked months earlier, only to be rebuked by the star. “Rex I love you. But they had the right address and apartment. Her name was on the warrant,” Chapman’s fan stated. “Unfollow please,” replied, Chapman, the future employee of the CNN family, which bills itself as “the most trusted name in news.”
Guys, never forget that Breonna Taylor’s killers were at the wrong house.
The wrong house.
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 23, 2020
Unfollow please
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 24, 2020
Chapman also falsely suggested that U.S. Postal mailboxes had been disabled to prevent mail-in voting during the 2020 election.
“In your entire life have you ever seen a LOCKED mailbox at the USPS?” Chapman asked in August 2020. “Now you have,” he said, tweeting a picture of mailboxes in Burbank, California, locked shut. He called the situation a “disgrace and immediate threat to American democracy. Shame on them. Shame on the GOP.”
In fact, local post officials had locked the front of the boxes, because “stealing mail, has become so common that postal officials have been retrofitting boxes around the San Fernando Valley and other areas to make them more tamper proof,” reported the Los Angeles Daily News … in 2016, when the locks first went on the boxes.
After reading the article, Chapman replied with an agrammatical and evidence-free assertion: “It’s not.”
A woman then drove to the location, shot a video, and posted a picture showing that while the front of the boxes were locked, the mail drops had smaller slots to deposit mail on the other side.
Chapman subsequently deleted the embarrassing tweet.
It’s not
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 17, 2020
Here is where people can mail their letters at the Burbank P.O.. They lock the other side and the lobby is locked when the Post Office is closed. It’s very dangerous to post misinformation. It panics people, especially during this scary era. pic.twitter.com/aYPlJqzEP0
— haunted dog (@zandywithaz) August 17, 2020
Chapman also posted a doctored video purporting to show a military band playing the Ray Charles classic “Hit the Road, Jack” on President Donald Trump’s last day in office. A follower posted the real clip, originally shared by CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Perfect. Trump’s last day.
The Military Band right outside the White House — “Hit The Road Jack”… pic.twitter.com/B0kXDgqggB
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) January 19, 2021
This is doctored. Here’s the original clip https://t.co/HGedlb6aKR
— phil (@phil1p7) January 19, 2021
“CNN adding Rex Chapman to CNN+. So they’re going for MSNBC, but even more stupid. Okay then. Suddenly Joy Reid won’t be the stupidest person on television,” tweeted Erick Erickson.
Rumors continue to circulate that Joy Reid has an uncertain future at MSNBC, but to date the network has offered no confirmation.