Willie Geist: Media Shouldn’t Have Been ‘Rooting for an Outcome’ With Smollett Story

EXCERPT:

JONES: "This just breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. The night it happened, you know, it was interesting, my Instagram was full of – I didn’t realize how pretty much everyone I know, and then the people that they know had had some kind of  interaction, right? So people were saying, 'I stand with Jussie' and they were posting pictures and fun-loving things that they’ve done, random moments at home or what have you. And then, as it started to unravel, there were a lot of people who were like, 'No.'Even me, I’m like, 'This can’t be happening.' Because if it’s not true, what was your end game in the beginning? Like how was this going to end? And there’s still a piece of me that is just, you know, hoping that –  what happened? I just --"  
MELVIN: "I don’t know if we -- you know, again, he enjoys the presumption of innocence."
JONES: "Sure, that’s why --"  
MELVIN: "But, you know, it doesn’t look good."
JONES: "Yeah."
GEIST: "Yeah, I think it’s a good lesson for a lot of people, including people in our business, about not rooting for an outcome.”

(h/t NewsBusters)