Thank you for watching! In the face of unrelenting disinformation and authoritarian actions, clear truth-telling and independent media are a necessity. If you value pro-democracy journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to my newsletter. Paid subscribers empower this work and gain access to exclusive benefits. Your support makes a difference.
There’s a detail in the Nolan Wells case that I can’t shake. His mother had to use Life360 to track down her own son’s phone. Not investigators. Not the sheriff’s department. A grieving mother was doing the work that a real investigation should have done in the first 24 hours. That single fact tells you almost everything you need to know about how this case has been handled, and it’s exactly what Don Lemon and I spent time covering in our latest Substack Live.
We got into the coverage gap first because it’s impossible to talk about Nolan Wells without talking about who has been covering it and who hasn’t. Fox News has been largely silent, at least in comparison to its missing persons coverage of white people. Other mainstream outlets took days to catch up. Don has been on this story since day one and has been steeped in the details of this case in a way almost nobody else in the media has. I noted that when Black people aren’t in the room, it’s difficult to get Black stories covered with the depth they deserve.
From there, we walked through the actual holes in the investigation. A drowning characterization was publicly speculated before a full investigation had been completed. Nolan’s phone, which the family tracked down themselves, had deleted messages. And Nolan’s mother, Christine, says she hadn’t heard from investigators in a week, despite the public outcry.
We also got into something harder to quantify but just as real, which is the anxiety this story triggers in Black families specifically. I talked about seeing that photo of Nolan with his friends and feeling something familiar, something that goes back to Trayvon Martin for me personally. Don talked about his own experience going to an integrated high school in the 80s and what’s shifted since. And I brought up something I haven’t fully sat with on air before, which is that I’m now a father to a one-month-old son, and stories like this hit different when you’re raising a Black boy in this world.
We closed on Colin Kaepernick funding an independent autopsy, Ben Crump’s role in exposing how badly this investigation has been mismanaged, and what happens once Monday’s funeral passes and the cameras start looking elsewhere.
I appreciate those of you who tuned in live and contributed so much to the conversation. This is truly the best community on Substack. If you’re just catching it now, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
You can watch our full conversation above and read key takeaways below. And, as always, thank you for supporting independent media.
If you like my pro-democracy journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber
The Diversity Gap That Decides Which Stories Get Told
Before we got into the specifics of the case, I wanted to name the coverage discrepancy directly, because it shapes everything else about how this story has unfolded.
I laid out the double standard plainly. I said if the situation were reversed, if a white teenager had vanished under similar circumstances with three Black kids on the boat, Fox News would be on day twelve of wall-to-wall coverage. Instead, we got near silence from Fox and a slow, reluctant catch-up from the rest of the mainstream media.
Don explained this was the exact fight he had at CNN. He said this kind of story was something he pushed for consistently while there, and that these stories always rated well once the network actually ran them. He connected that directly to a lack of diversity among the people deciding what gets covered.
Don pointed out who’s missing from the room. He said he’s rarely, if ever, seen another Black journalist like Roland Martin or Joy Reid at these press conferences, and that there just aren’t that many of them present covering this case in real time.
I raised the fact that there’s an actual business case being ignored. I made the point that outlets have a ratings and engagement incentive to cover this story and are still choosing not to, which only makes sense if you understand that newsrooms without lived experience in these communities don’t recognize the urgency.
A Botched Investigation
This is where the conversation had the most weight for me, because every new detail we discussed pointed toward the same pattern of an investigation that never treated this case with immediate, urgent seriousness.
I walked through the phone timeline, and it doesn’t add up. I said the phone was never voluntarily handed over. Nolan’s mother, Christine, had to use Life360 tracking to locate it herself, and it turned out to be sitting in a house rather than on the boat, meaning someone removed it and never called the family.
I pushed back hard on how fast the sheriff moved to a conclusion. I said investigators tried to characterize this as a drowning far too early, which is not how a serious investigation is supposed to work.
New audio surfaced this week that raises more questions than it answers. I referenced the NBC News audio describing the boat taking on water at one point and asked why that detail wasn’t part of the public record earlier.
Don revealed the family had gone over a week without contact from investigators. He said Nolan’s mother told reporters at a press conference that she hadn’t heard from investigators since the previous Tuesday, more than a week prior, and that she’d initiated that last contact herself by text. Don illustrated what basic decency would look like by acting out the kind of short, simple check-in call a sheriff’s office should be making, a hypothetical rather than anything actually said, to underline just how low a bar was being missed.
If you like my pro-democracy journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber
Misinformation Fills The Vacuum
Where there’s an information gap this large, something rushes in to fill it, and in this case it’s been outright fabrication.
I flagged the AI-generated videos targeting Nolan’s mother. I referenced Mississippi Free Press reporting on fake AI content attempting to put words in her mouth, which is its own kind of cruelty layered on top of an already devastating situation.
I connected the silence to an unwillingness to protect the family. I said the department’s failure to properly communicate shows they know they’ve mishandled this case, and that failing to work to rebuild trust only deepens the family’s justified distrust.
The Anxiety Every Black Family Recognizes
We spent real time on why this story resonates so deeply beyond the specific facts of the case, and that meant getting personal.
I described the specific kind of anxiety this story triggers. I said there’s a difference between being comfortable around white people generally and being around white people who aren’t your allies, and that this case taps into a collective trauma that Black people carry regardless of how integrated our own lives are.
Don reflected on his own experience with integration and how the era has shifted. He talked about attending an all-Black Catholic school before switching to an integrated high school in the 80s, and how his sense of who his white classmates were has changed as he has watched the MAGA era unfold. He also pushed back on the idea that Nolan was isolated among white friends, noting there’s plenty of footage of him with his Black friends, several of whom have been the ones speaking out.
I drew a direct line to Trayvon Martin. I said I was Trayvon’s exact age when that happened, and that this case is triggering something similar in me even though the circumstances aren’t identical.
I brought in where I am now as a new father. I said I’m one month into fatherhood and that this story hits differently, seeing it through the lens of a son I’m now responsible for protecting in this world.
If you like my pro-democracy journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber
Kaepernick, Crump, & The Fight for Answers
The role of outside support in this case, both financial and legal, came up as a turning point in how much pressure has actually been applied to investigators.
I gave credit to Colin Kaepernick for funding the independent autopsy. I said Kaepernick helped pay to get the body transported for a second opinion because the family didn’t trust the original investigators, and that this kind of sustained commitment to the fight, years after he was blackballed from the NFL, deserves real recognition.
Don drew the connection to how Kaepernick himself was treated. He said what happened to Kaepernick for taking a knee, one of the most respectful gestures there is, reflects the same distorted perceptions around race and Black men running through this entire case.
I extended that point further. I said Kaepernick was never virtue signaling, that he’s paid for his stance financially and is still actively in the fight today, which is part of what makes his involvement in funding this autopsy significant rather than performative.
Don credited Ben Crump with exposing how badly this has been mishandled. He said Crump’s involvement is what surfaced and spread many of the details we covered in this conversation.
What Happens After Monday
We ended on the practical question of what happens once public attention naturally shifts, which is the part of this story that worries both of us most.
Don raised concern about what happens once the funeral passes. He said the funeral is scheduled for Monday, and that historically once a funeral happens, network attention and roundtable coverage tend to fade even though the investigation itself doesn’t actually conclude.
I said I’m already watching that shift happen. I said this week’s coverage has rightfully shifted toward the ICE killings, which are their own atrocities deserving attention, but that I’m not seeing the same sustained diligence applied to Nolan’s case that Don has brought to his own coverage.
I pointed to the newly surfaced audio as evidence that this story isn’t finished. I said that between CBS and NBC News uncovering new audio this week, the hunt for real answers is continuing even as most mainstream attention wanes, and that I expect more information to come out that will keep this case alive.
If you like my pro-democracy journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber
Bottom Line
Strip away everything else, and what’s left is a mother who had to do investigators’ jobs for them, a sheriff’s department that announced an assumed cause of death before it had the facts, and a week of total silence toward a grieving family that deserved basic communication.
Layer on top of that a media landscape that took days to even notice, and you start to understand why this case has become about more than just Nolan Wells. It’s become a test of whether institutions, both law enforcement and media, actually show up for Black families with the same urgency they show up for everyone else. Right now, they’re failing that test.
Support independent media and analysis that fearlessly tells the truth. Subscribe to Don Lemon. If you have not yet become a paid subscriber to Ahmed Baba News, you can do that below. And if you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you! It truly means a lot.
