It was on the evening of August 22 that Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian war refugee, boarded the Lynx Blue Line light rail system in Charlotte, North Carolina. A short time later, a man sitting behind her took out a small knife and stabbed the young woman three times in the neck and then nonchalantly walked away. None of the alphabet news networks covered it. Neither did The New York Times or Washington’s most well-known daily newspaper. By completely ignoring this brutal train stabbing, the left-wing media disgraced itself once again.
It wasn’t that this horrific attack didn’t warrant coverage. Back in May of 2023, these outlets devoted a great deal of time and column inches to another fatal encounter on a train – the New York City subway. And, when one compares the establishment (left-wing) media’s handling of the two incidents, it becomes obvious that politics and race dictated how they were treated.
A Tale of Two Train Deaths
Most will remember Daniel Penny, a Marine riding the New York subway on May 1, 2023. Jordan Neely boarded that train, terrifying passengers with threats of violence. Penny put Neely in a chokehold to protect his fellow riders, but Neely died shortly afterward.
The media treated Penny like a monster – a heartless killer who was probably also a racist (Penny is white, Neely was black). A left-wing mob raged outside the courthouse during Penny’s trial, baying for blood. It was so bad that some of the witnesses disclosed they were scared that they would be in danger if Penny was acquitted.
Not all lives are equal, though, in the eyes of the progressive left. The young Ukrainian girl, Zarutska, was white and blonde. Her killer, who clearly had no connection to her, was black. Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, the suspect, has now reportedly been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He had been arrested on no fewer than 14 previous occasions.
And since “hate crimes” – crimes in which the victims are targeted for their race, religion, or sexual orientation – are now a thing, it is entirely reasonable to suggest that Brown murdered Zarutska either because she was white, a woman, or both. That’s a hate crime, either way. But left-wing “journalists” are not going to report on a hate crime committed by a black man.
So, Penny was trashed because he was white and took what turned out to be lethal action against a crazed black man, but another black man gets a pass from the media, even though he slaughtered an innocent girl.
The Marine had one other negative mark against him, in the left’s eyes. He took action. He made a stand and physically intervened to protect people. For left-wingers, civilians acting in self-defense or the defense of others is taboo.
NC Train Stabbing Victim the Wrong Color?
And we can play the race-reversal game to accurately predict how the media would have handled both cases differently in various scenarios. Had Daniel Penny been black, the media would have probably ignored that incident – unless Jordan Neely had been white. Then, Penny would likely have been portrayed as a hero. What if Zarutska had been black? Again, no story there – unless her killer had been white. In that case, the media would be all over it and there would be angry mobs in the streets. But if both had been white, well, maybe the media would have paid some – a little – attention. They probably would not have buried it entirely, as they have in this case.
Apart from another obscene failure of the criminal justice system, the Zarutska murder has again exposed the naked bias and hypocrisy of the leftist media. With audiences and readers rapidly melting away, it seems curious that these outlets would double down, time and time again, on using highly partisan worldviews and a pronounced anti-white bias to color every aspect of their reporting.
The hubris it takes for them to, presumably, imagine they can keep this up and survive indefinitely as profitable enterprises is quite stunning.
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