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On January 29, 2026 former CNN anchor Don Lemon was taken into federal custody in Los Angeles in connection with a January 18 protest that disrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul. Federal prosecutors say Lemon and others are charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and violating the FACE Act for their roles in the incident, while Lemon insists he was there purely as a journalist. He was released on his own recognizance the next day and has vowed to fight the charges, but the facts of protesters storming a house of worship are undisputed.
What has been almost as shocking as the arrest itself is the media’s predictable rush to coronate Lemon as a martyr for press freedom. Greg Gutfeld and the Gutfeld! panel rightly skewered that narrative on Fox, pointing out how quickly parts of the mainstream press pivot from outraged defenders of order to solemn protectors of their own. Conservatives aren’t anti-press; we’re against special pleading when the press appears to pick sides or cross the line from reporting into activism.
Make no mistake: religious services are sanctuaries for worship, not stages for political theater. If Americans truly believe in both free speech and the free exercise of religion, those rights must be defended equally. Prosecutors have a duty to pursue credible complaints of interference with worship, and voters should demand accountability when activists—regardless of ideology—cross into unlawful disruption.
That said, we must also watch for overreach and politicized prosecutions. A federal magistrate initially declined to sign off on a complaint against Lemon for lack of probable cause before the DOJ sought and secured a grand jury indictment, which raises legitimate questions about prosecutorial zeal. Conservatives should reject both selective enforcement and a system where the powerful weaponize law enforcement against political opponents or inconvenient journalists.
The whole episode also exposes the media’s double standard. Don Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023 and has since positioned himself as an activist-journalist; yet when the state moved against him, much of the same class of reporters leapt to his defense without addressing the substance of what happened inside that church. If journalism is a calling, it must come with responsibility—covering a story is one thing, joining or facilitating a disruption is another.
Americans who love liberty can hold two truths at once: defend a free press and defend the right of worshippers to pray in peace. The proper response here is not performative outrage but sober scrutiny of the facts, a cease to selective sympathy, and a recommitment to equal application of the law. Patriots should demand both the protection of civil liberties and the preservation of civic order—because without law and faith, neither lasting freedom nor durable peace can survive.
