American Consequences - October 2020

First, outlets flatly downplayed the violence... Standing in front of a building literally burning to the ground, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi remarkably claimed the Minneapolis demonstration was “mostly a protest” and “not generally speaking unruly.” Nearly a month into Portland’s nightly rioting, CNN’s Brian Stelter chided FOX News for giving it coverage, bellyaching the network “evidently decided that a small group of self-described anarchists suddenly deserved national news coverage.” Despite $60 million worth of property damage caused in one Monday morning organized riot in Chicago, MSNBC did not mention it once during its primetime coverage.

Then, outlets played up the patriotism angle. We riot in America! Don Lemon, while airing a video of looters breaking into a retail store in Los Angeles, cautioned, “I’m not judging this,” before stumbling his way through a Boston Tea Party comparison. The Huffington Post and the Atlantic forwarded the same theme... Rebellion is patriotic . Finally, outlets that acknowledged there was violence argued it was all justified. R.H. Lossin wrote a defense of the riots in the Nation arguing, “What if it is not a frustrated, emotional reaction but a reasonable and articulate expression in itself?” Claiming neighborhood destruction was a “proportional response” to Floyd’s killing, Steven Thrasher of Slate argued “destroying a police precinct is a reasonable reaction.” Yesha Callahan in Essence simply demanded we “burn it all down.” Short-term violence that leads to peaceful marches, voter registration drives, and nightly reminders of how Trump is dividing this country would hurt the president, but the violence wouldn’t stop. It intensified with no end in sight, moving from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles to Kenosha. Not even rabid ideologues hoping the Black Lives Matter momentum would boot Trump from office could justify it. So just as quickly as it began, it stopped – the national media pretended it wasn’t happening. The Pacific Northwest became a hotbed of violent political activism. With the notable exception of FOX News, the national media was disinterested in coverage when the violence started.

American Consequences

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