By Michael Dorstewitz(NEWSMAX)
Wednesday was proof that how corporate media and Democrat politicians report and comment on acts of civil unrest depends upon who is engaged in the rioting.
Six months ago The New York Times, which has been described as the national “newspaper of record,” made excuses for rioters who attempted to take over the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
It reported that “the nightly assault on the federal courthouse has been part of a much wider peaceful resistance … that began assembling nearly two months ago in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.”
The Times continued, “the aim, as it has been in other cities, was to assemble for sweeping police reform and racial justice.”
Reporting on Wednesday’s protest in Washington, D.C., The Times’ “peaceful resistance” suddenly became a “mob.”
Instead of “assembling,” the protesters engaged in “rampage” and “chaos,” incited by President Trump, which became a “part of his legacy.”
Liberal Vox’s German Lopez proclaimed during last summer that while “riots are destructive, dangerous, and scary,” they serve a purpose, because they “can lead to serious social reforms.”
Lopez had a change of heart when he reported on Wednesday’s melee.
He believed that “every person who forced their way into the Capitol should be arrested.”
CNN reported on the August mass destruction in Kenosha, Wis., as “fiery but mostly peaceful.” As CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez described the scene as “an expression of anger and frustration,” the entire background was engulfed in flames.
Likewise, last year during the BLM protests CNN anchor Chris Cuomo made excuses for rioters.
Cuomo said on air, “Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”
CNN’s stance did an about-face when reporting on Wednesday’s protest at the Capitol Building.
CNN reported, “America faces 13 days of danger before the departure of an unhinged commander-in-chief who set his mob on the US Capitol in an act of insurrection that shattered a more than 220-year tradition of peaceful transfers of power.”
In September, two Los Angeles police officers were shot in what appeared to be an ambush attack.
Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, showed some sympathy for the shooters.
“606 lawsuits were filed against the LA police, with 539 against the LA County Sheriff’s Office. The county spent $81 M settling or litigating these lawsuits,” she tweeted.
“What happened to these officers was awful,” Hill continued, “but it’s funny how the police want everyone else to be accountable but them.”
But when Hill commented on Wednesday’s protest, she made it a race issue, claiming that the officers were too easy on the rioters.
“Let’s just be clear about something,” she tweeted: “The reason the Capitol police were slow to respond is because they gave these white people the benefit of the doubt and treated it like a joke. Their reaction isn’t the same because they see black people as a threat that needs to be eliminated.”
To be clear one person was “eliminated” Wednesday.
It was an unarmed woman named Ashli Babbitt.
She was a 14-year Air Force veteran who apparently was shot by a Capitol Police officer while she was just standing there.
Ashlli Babbitt was white.
But she was a Trump supporter, which apparently makes her death, the result of an outrageous and excessive use of police force, OK.
Pollster Matt McDermott observed in 2018 an “incredible scene on Capital Hill right now, where thousands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters have taken over the Hart Senate Office Building.”
Wednesday he changed his tune to “We are witnessing a domestic terrorism attack incited by the Republican Party.”
At the first presidential debate, President Trump challenged Joe Biden to denounce antifa, the organization behind most of the arson, looting, and rioting causing billions in property damage.
He declined, claiming that antifa is “an idea, not an organization”
Commenting on Wednesday’s protest, “At this hour our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.” He added, “This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end now.”
As recently as November, Monica Showalter observed on American Thinker that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was among Democrat leaders that couldn’t bring themselves to condemn the violence perpetrated by Black Lives Matter and antifa.
He compared Wednesday’s protest, however, to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Franklin Roosevelt set a day aside that will live in infamy,” he said on the Senate floor. “Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.”
It could only be comparable if one Japanese pilot lost his life, while no American lives were lost.
But perhaps the most thought-provoking statement came from Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume.
“Do not be surprised if we learn in the days ahead that the Trump rioters were infiltrated by leftist extremists,” he said. “Note: this is not to excuse any of them.”
Newsmax has reported that we have no evidence that BLM or antifa actively worked to agitate at the pro-Trump rally in Washington.
But we have loads of evidence the media have a big double-standard when reporting on protests and riots that turn ugly, violent, and sometimes deadly.
