Federal buildings lit with Molotov cocktails, chaos in the streets, private property and livelihoods destroyed, and civilians terrified. Civil unrest in the United States – but not this week. It was a common occurrence in cities like Detroit, New York, Scottsdale, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle – and wherever else mobs of Black Lives Matter and Antifa came together to wreak havoc earlier this year.
Last week’s protest of the Electoral College count and recording was by all accounts very different. Bricks weren’t offloaded beforehand for easy access in breaking windows, and no bonfires were set, no buildings burned, no vehicles set ablaze. The First Amendment was shining bright for thousands of people gathered in support of President Trump – until bad actors stormed chambers. It was something we’ve become accustomed to in watching BLM protests escalate out of control. But you would have thought, by big-box media reports, that a civil war had just broken out in the Swamp.
Marauders! Drink!
A cursory glance through primetime media coverage – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC – and one could tell it was the only news to cover. Of course, last summer, one would be hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of the Portland Mayor running for his life when Antifa stormed his condo complex. Omar Jimenez from CNN stood in front of a raging fire in Kenosha, WI, and declared it was mostly a peaceful protest. CNN’s chyron at the bottom of television screens read “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.”
And what of the soon-to-be Vice President? Kamala Harris in as much declared that sentiment by tweeting last June 1, “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
And who can forget when CNN mouthpiece Chris Cuomo defended looting and rioting by BLM and Antifa, saying: “Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”
In an about-face, media outlets soon called the protest by Trump supporters “violence and chaos in the streets.” One such media interviewee compared the events at the capital to the attack on America on 9/11. Big box media parroted the term “marauders” as often as a three-year-old who had just discovered such a fun word. Adults perhaps shot an ounce of whiskey with each utterance for sanity.
And remember Maxine Waters of California? The hate-spewing congressional Democrat demanded the left incite violence against Trump supporters. A refresher:
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
Trump supporters showed up – and it scared the holy hell out of people. What should frighten the electorate is prejudicial and biased complicity of what once was lauded as the free press.
“Unprecedented” - Hardly
In 1971, the radical left group Weather Underground, fronted by Bill Ayers, detonated a bomb in the U.S. Senate men’s bathroom. Heck, they blew up all sorts of government buildings. Protesting is nothing new. How the media reports, however, is more troubling than the actual event itself.
Trump supporters came to D.C. on their own dime – no wealthy benefactor sent bus tickets and visa cards. No elected officials established bail funds for those crossing the line from peaceful protesting to rioting. The message was clear: Thousands upon thousands believe our elections are broken. Spin and partisanship do not promote democracy; they are the tools with which to destroy it.
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
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