There is no “the media”
By now you’ve probably seen the photo and possibly the video of rioters casually strolling out of the U.S. Capitol waving flags, smiling, and taking photos of the words etched into the door.
By now you might have also seen this in your Facebook feed or on a neighborhood chat board:
Remember in 2011 when tens of thousands of Democrats surged on the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison and physically occupied it for more than two weeks? We were told, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Remember in 2016 when Obama was President and hundreds of BLM blocked interstate highways and violently accosted police (even killing several)? We were told, “To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible.”
Remember in 2018 during the Kavanaugh hearings when a mob of Democrats stormed the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, and pounded their fists in rage on the door. We were told, “It’s understandable.”
Remember this summer’s riots in major cities across the country when groups of Democrats marched in the streets, set buildings on fire, looted businesses, assaulted and even killed bystanders and police? We were told, “These are mostly peaceful protests.”
Remember when Democrats seized several blocks of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in downtown Seattle, declaring it an autonomous zone? Remember the guns and deaths and utter destruction? We were told, “It’s a block party atmosphere.”
Remember when a crazed mob gathered after the Republican National Convention and attacked Rand Paul, a sitting U.S. Senator? We were told, “No justice, no peace.”
Remember how police were told to stand down, governors refused to call in the national guard, and Democrats paid bail for violent protesters who were arrested? We were told, “This is the only way oppressed people can be heard.”
I have condemned violent protests and lawlessness every single time they’ve been reported. I condemn the actions of those who stormed the Capitol yesterday. But I refuse to condemn hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors because a handful (52 arrested) chose to be lawless and to defy everything the vast majority of the crowd stood for. Conservatives are defenders of the Constitution, the police, and the rule of law. Because a relative few people decided to do something stupid doesn’t nullify the concerns of the many.
I will not fact check the above (although I easily could) because it’s the next section that really grabbed my attention.
The real culprit here? The mainstream media has been telling us for years that violence is the only way people who feel oppressed can be heard, it’s the only way to get justice, and this is what democracy looks like. Apparently, a few who were in the crowd on Wednesday listened to them.
The inflammatory rhetoric of the Left caused this, and it’s about time Democrats and the mainstream media took responsibility for dividing Americans and attempting to humiliate those who support the President or any conservative ideals. They have pushed people to the brink, even while claiming, “It’s time for unity.” It’s time for careful reflection and change on all sides. God help us!
What was most disheartening about finding this in my Facebook feed was that one of my daughter’s favorite elementary school teachers shared it. This woman who encouraged my daughter’s love of science and even took her to a bird sanctuary to visit a rescued owl. Just the kind of teacher any parent would want for their kid.
Then this.
I get it. I know how temping it is to cut & paste something that aligns with strongly held beliefs. You might not even read it all the way through. I’m guilty myself.
But I’ve worked as a journalist for 30+ years, and I have never believed or told anyone that “violence is the only way people who feel oppressed can be heard, it’s the only way to get justice, and this is what democracy looks like.” And I don’t know any journalists who have. The journalists I know work very hard to help people understand complex issues by offering multiple perspectives, contextual history and compelling stories that illustrate the point.
There is no big homogenous “media.” The reporters working at your local newspaper and TV and radio stations have nothing in common with Rush Limbaugh (a media person, but not a journalist) or many of the talking heads on CNN (political commentators, not journalists). When people use the term “the media” as if we’re all alike it’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous.
Last year, scores of journalists were attacked by police while covering BLM rallies, despite the constitution enshrining the right of the press to cover the news. Here are just a few examples from my world of public radio.
Current, the public media industry publication, listed other cases of reporters being attacked by police.
Nieman Lab documented more than a hundred over a span of just a few days. And that doesn’t count the hundreds of U.S. journalists who have been attacked by “unknown assailants” over the past few years.
When I led gpbnews in Atlanta, one of my reporters was attacked while covering a story. Thankfully, he wasn’t seriously injured, but he was punched in the face. The people who attacked him identified themselves as Antifa. I also have journalist friends who’ve been physically threatened by people attending Trump rallies. This animus knows no bounds.
The last few years, with all of its highly-charged rhetoric about “the media”, has resulted in a spike in attacks on journalists, several of them fatal. Two years ago, the US was put on a list of the deadliest places in the world for journalists.
Afghanistan
Syria
Mexico
Yemen
(tie) India and United States
Let that sink in. And that was just deaths; not all the other stuff that stops short of death.
A day before discovering the “the mainstream media is the real culprit” post in my feed, I shared a story about the journalists who were heckled, harassed and, in some cases, attacked by rioters on the Capitol grounds. With it, I added this request:
I was quietly unfriended and blocked by a cousin.
Not physically attacking another human being shouldn’t have to be a line in the sand.
