The politics of reporting on left-wing violence against the right
Senator Rand Paul has had a rough couple of years of it. He was present but not injured when Steve Scalise was almost murdered on the baseball field by a Republican-hating shooter. And Paul had his very own incident of being beaten quite badly by a neighbor with a political beef.
Both incidents have almost certainly left Paul very aware of the escalating violence on the left, and how verbal threats can lead unhinged people to actual physical attacks. He is also aware of how the MSM covers up the leftist origins of such attackers, and has called them out on it:
“I was there at the ball field when Steven Scalise almost died from a very, very angry violent man who was incited really by rhetoric on the left,” Paul said.
“And this hasn’t been reported enough, when he came on the field with a semi-automatic weapon firing probably close to 200 shots at us, shooting five people and almost killing Steve Scalise, he was yelling ‘this is for healthcare!” Paul said. “He also had a list of conservative legislators, Republicans, in his pocket that he was willing to kill.”
The fact that it “wasn’t reported enough” is no accident. Inconvenient truths about the left are ignored as much as possible. The Scalise shooting has been minimized, but it was extremely serious and the only thing that prevented a massacre was the fact that the shooter was killed by police before he could do more damage. As it was he put a lot of people in the hospital and nearly killed Scalise. From my post:
Hodgkinson [the shooter] was a Sanders supporter and worked on the Sanders campaign, as even Sanders has admitted in the course of his own condemnation of the attack. More importantly, I think, Hodgkinson was member of groups such as one entitled “Terminate the Republican Party” and “The Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans.”
But much of the media tried to cover that up or at least minimize it, and I bet they succeeded with a lot of people. If the parties had been reversed we’d never hear the end of how the awful right-wing extremist tried to kill virtuous Democrats. But instead, here’s what we got, according the The Federalist‘s Mollie Hemingway:
Progressive Democratic activist James Hodgkinson spent years on social media and in local and national politics focusing on his hatred of Republican politicians. On Wednesday, he went after a group of Republican politicians as they practiced baseball in the early morning, shooting a member of the Republican leadership, two capitol police, a legislative aide, and a lobbyist. Rep. Steve Scalise remains in critical condition.
Hodgkinson’s social media trail and the accounts of neighbors leave no question that the man was politically engaged, aligned with progressives, and upset with Republicans.
Some media coverage of the incident has been fine, if restrained. The media have not chosen to make this shooting a referendum on leftist political violence, on the use of extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theorizing by major mainstream media, on the dangers of the resistance movement. There has been no rush to introspection.
Some media treatment has been disgusting. The New York Times ran an editorial that is dangerously dishonest.
The article then describes how the right was wrongly blamed for the Giffords shooting (including a Sarah Palin PAC) although the Giffords shooter was a paranoid schizophrenic. The contrast with the Scalise shooting is stark. Here’s what the Times wrote. “Disingenuous” would be a euphemism for what this is; it’s an Orwellian lie in which up is down and down is up:
Was this [Scalise] attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear [sic]. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.
Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Though there’s no sign of incitement as direct as in the Giffords attack [sic], liberals should of course hold themselves to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.
Hemingway goes on to fisk the Times editorial very effectively. But Hemingway is not the audience the Times is addressing, then or now. It doesn’t need to be logical or truthful, it merely needs to be good at writing propaganda and spreading the desired meme, which is, as Hemingway succinctly put it:
…[The Times’] standard is to blame Republicans for violence against Democrats when there is no relationship of any Republican to that violence, and to blame Republicans for violence against Republicans when the perpetrator is a progressive Democratic activist.
But most people are unaware not only of this ploy, but of the fact that it’s not the least bit new. In fact, it was already well-established over fifty years ago with the press response to the JFK assassination.
Kennedy’s assassination was an act of extreme political violence perpetrated against a Democratic but moderate president by a leftist. There is zero doubt that Oswald was a rabid leftist, but some of the media of the time managed to blame the right in an act of journalistic jujutsu that has rarely been equaled. And that blaming continues to this day.
At the time of the Scalise shooting I wrote this post comparing the reaction of the press and the left after Kennedy’s assassination to the left and press reaction to the Scalise shooting. In both cases it was blame the violence of leftists on the “climate of hate” supposedly created by the right. Here’s an article from 2013 by Mark Hemingway (husband of Mollie, by the way) describing how, all these years later, the left is still blaming the right for the act of rabid leftist Oswald.
[NOTE: I have written many times before about the Kennedy assassination and the popularity of conspiracy theories about it, and why they are all bunk. I know that many of my readers disagree, and we’ve had it out many times. If you want to take a look at just a few of these posts of mine and the discussion threads that ensued, please see this, this, and this.
I’m not interested in another go-round of that discussion. But I do want to add that conspiracy theories abound on right and left, but many of them have the effect of clearing the left of responsibility for the act.
I also wrote a post in 2009 that quotes some of the general liberal/leftist rewriting of JFK assassination history in order to exonerate the left and blame the right. Here are some samples:
Exhibit A – Liberal talk radio host Mike Malloy, August 27: …I remember feeling that way in 1963 and in 1968-when [Ted Kennedy’s] two brothers were murdered by the right wing in this country…
Exhibit B – Novelist Lorenzo Carcaterra, September 13:…In the summer months of 1963, the voices of the right were tossing hate bombs at another young President…messages of hate, threats and warnings.
One such warning was for President John F. Kennedy to stay out of Texas.
To stay out of Dallas…
Exhibit C – Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America, September 18:…A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this
That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course…But I’ve been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I’ve been recalling the history and how that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for the New England Democrat.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ]
The media has been disingenuous on several fronts for a long time. In the 80’s and early 90’s, hard-line Soviet communists were the conservatives. Those wanting free-market reform and less government intrusion were the liberals. Here in the US, more free- market and less government were the conservatives while more government intervention were the liberals. Never made sense to me then as does their labels now. But unless someone pays attention, they never see the incongruity of how the media labels things. The media is still operating with 1984 as their guide.
“…Orwellian…”
With the MSM firmly—by its own choice—in Obama’s pocket, tooting his horn, singing his praises (hosannas to his every word and deed), consistently disparaging his opponents in the GOP and trying to kneecap any media organ—and journalist—that dared criticize and protest… and reveal;
With government agencies stacked with his supporters, suborned and weaponized against any perceived political foe;
With his aides flaunting their carefully nurtured ability to lie to the American public, crowing about how stupid that public is, boasting of how they “pulled a fast one” on watchdog agencies, falling over themselves about their extraordinary deceptions, lying so dizzyingly about touted achievements both foreign and domestic that it was hard to keep up…while those who were able to withstand the vertiginous heights of such Through-the-Looking-Glass “reality” and actually manage to question those untruths were hammered down by both the administration and its media helots);
With his Attorneys General either opting to resign (because of imminent impeachment) or “taking the fifth” because of the need to conceal illegality and prevarication….
With all this going on, Orwell was pretty much kept on the shelf.
Collecting dust.
But then, somehow, Trump gets elected—in spite of the media, academia, the intellectual classes and “polite” society all stacked against him—and everyone rushes out to buy “1984”….
The Oswald narrative was/is truly remarkable. I remember being told in school (this would have been 20-25 years after the assassination) multiple times, from multiple sources (teachers and textbooks) he was a right wing extremist. His defection to the USSR was always either glossed over or ignored entirely.
But the Mike Malloy comment on RFK is even more baffling. How on earth is Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian nationalist angry over RFK’s support for Israel in the Six Day War, part of the “right wing”??
Pingback:Don't You Dare Call Them a Mob - The Moral ChristianThe Moral Christian
@eeyore
The conservative tradition in the US being the more free-market one isn’t unfounded. The US was founded on classical liberal foundations, so a conservative mindset would be to defend those foundations. As far as the other side going as liberals, that’s what they’ve done for years. They appropriate a name of an ideological subset of the opposing side and use it until they’ve run it into the ground.
I was alive when both Kennedys were assassinated. JFK was killed by a communist fellow-traveler with ties to both the Soviets and Cuba. RFK was killed by a radical anti-Israel activist. Neo points to the Giffords shooter being a schizophrenic, and the Sandy Hook shooter was also mentally ill. About the only example of someone not a leftist or crazy committing mass murders (that I remember) would be McVey, and he wasn’t “right wing” in the sense of being an economic or religious conservative. He was part of the anti-government feelings generated by government killings at Ruby Ridge and Waco.
Aside from the very few abortion clinic shootings, you will look in vain in recent history for economic or religious conservatives advocating violence. Mobs are a left-wing phenomenon.
Every person assaulted in America should just automatically include the New York Times as an accessory co defendant for the constant reckless endangerment their propaganda causes.
Have their legal department be the largest division within Time Inc. Make some money off those repulsive sons of b**ches for Christ sake.
They can totally afford it. And God knows they deserve to pay.
I linked back to this. Well done.
After Neo’s Eric Holder post, I was curious about what happened to Rand Paul’s 2nd attacker, at his home. He got 30 days in jail and about a year’s probation, or something that seemed similar to probation.
Paul said that they were pushing for 21 months in jail, but the judge bought the claim that the guy flipped over the leaves that Paul’s lawnmower had blown onto his property.
Move along, move along. Nothing to see here.
Gifford’s shooter wasn’t just a paranoid schizophrenic, he was also a registered democrat.
As to Kennedy. Oswald was a rabid leftist who may or may not have had accomplices. Most likely he did not unless you count whomever sold him the gun and gave him access to the building.
The most fascinating thing I have read lately about the JFK asassination is that LBJ was probably behind it. JFK was on the verge of dropping LBJ from the ticket and LBJ was on course to spend jail-time for his involvement with Billy Sol Estes. Look on Youtube for video evidence of LBJ sinking down in his seat in the limousine well before the first shot was fired. Also, modern photo enhancement of the Zapruder film demonstrates that the kill shot was fired from in front of the limo. Also, a finger print of LBJ’s strong-arm man was found on the 6th floor of the repository in the corner from which a shot was fired. There’s tons more. Roger Stone, and many others, have written books about this. So many things do not add up that it’s worth revisiting. I don’t know the truth, but I have a strong feeling that truth differs substantially from what the public has been told.
“I don’t know the truth, but I have a strong feeling that truth differs substantially from what the public has been told.” – ahem.
I’m not getting into the Kennedy controversy, but this statement is certainly true about a LOT of things.
On the politics of reporting:
Q: when is a mob not a mob?
A: when it is a mob of Democrats.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/democratic-mobs-real-problem/
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/10/when-is-a-mob-not-a-mob-when-youre-on-cnn/
http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/11/yes-its-a-mob-and-yes-its-what-democrats-want/
FWIW Neo-Nazi types have racked up something of a death toll in the 21st century. Of course, there’s Dylan Roof’s horrific massacre of nine people at a Charleston black church.
There’s the mostly forgotten shooting at a Sikh temple in 2012 which resulted in six deaths plus the shooter’s suicide (Wade Michael Page).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting
I followed that story into white supremacist web sites and discovered they had no respect for Page since they believed he had meant to kill Muslims but was too stupid to realize Sikhs weren’t Muslims. Further gossip was Page’s girlfriend had dumped him and he was upset at the time.
Then there was Frazier Glenn Miller’s shooting at a Jewish Community Center in 2014, in which three people were killed.
Miller was an alcoholic who believed he was dying of emphysema. He had testified against a group of white supremacists in exchange for a plea bargain and, apparently, witness protection. Afterward he was largely hated as a snitch by the white supremacist community. It seemed he wanted to prove himself as a loyal neo-nazi before he died. He is now on death row.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Park_Jewish_Community_Center_shooting
I don’t think it’s fair to blame Republicans for these deaths, though Democrats and progressives do.
Re: JFK / Oswald
The real villain here is Jackie Kennedy. You heard right.
She commissioned William Manchester to write “Death of a President”.
Jackie was disappointed with Oswald’s lefty persuasion. Manchester quotes her as saying; “He didn’t even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights… it had to be some silly little Communist.”
She wants a racist. That is, she wants Civil Rights as Camelot’s legacy. Manchester’s thesis, that the atmosphere created by racists and conspiracy theorists in Dallas was to blame, delivers this.
There are many problems with this thesis. The most important one is evident in Malcolm X’s famous quote at the time, where he all but tells us that JFK deserved the bullet that Oswald lodged in his skull. I apologize for the “eliminationist rhetoric” but why whitewash things?
I can elaborate on the last paragraph if anyone is curious.
“FWIW Neo-Nazi types have racked up something of a death toll in the 21st century.”
Which is an example of buying Stalin’s lie that the Nazis were right wing instead of a competing socialist crime family.
Relevant personal anecdote. In November 1963, I was a public high school senior in a northeastern New Jersey community that had voted heavily for Kennedy in 1960. I was an active and well-known Goldwater supporter. When the Kennedy assassination was reported in the school, the most common reaction was that, since it had happened in Texas, it had to have been the work of a John Birch Society member or someone else on the extreme Right.
Neo, I was referred to your site by the Bookworm.
I like much of what you write, and I wish you well.
I must, therefore, give you my best considered advice: drop the effort to pin the JFK murder on “a Leftist”.
We’ll probably never know who Oswald was really working for, but J. Edgar almost certainly did.
If J. Edgar didn’t know what Oswald was up to, that was horrible dereliction on J. Edgar’s part.
All sorts of knowledgeable writers, incl. some alt-Righters, have ripped the Establishment’s circling of the wagons on this.
To label all criticism of the Establishment view, as “conspiracy theories”, is beneath your usual high standards.
As a retired cop, and nephew of a high-ranking detective in a rather major state, I think that I know enough of how things go in law enforcement / security, to justifiable insist that the Establishment’s probe(s) into the murders of JFK, and Oswald, were jokes.
Those murders happened, largely because, in each case, the relevant security systems were manipulated to effectively stand down, so that Oswald (etc.?) could get clean, **multiple** shots.
(JFK’s Dallas limo was “naked as a jaybird”, contrary to standard practice for such motorcades.)
Likewise with Ruby’s single shot, in a police station (“fortress”).
To start getting well-enough informed, so as to be qualified to appropriately write about this matter, go to https://www.amazon.com/Vincent-Michael-Palamara/e/B00GFZHJD0 .
Palamara’s best-known book, “Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy”, is particularly well-regarded by knowledgeable persons (incl. retired Secret Service agents).
Meanwhile, don’t risk your cred on this JFK stuff, and keep up the good work on events like the Scalize shooting.
Typo alert:
“justifiable insist that the Establishment’s probe(s)” should be “justifiabLY insist”.
aNanyMouse:
I have read reams and reams of material on the JFK assassination, both “Oslwald did it alone” material and tons of material about conspiracies of all stripes as well as other single perps, and the evidence of Oswald as sole assassin is not only convincing, it is overwhelming and virtually certain.
Read the pieces I’ve written on the subject. Read the book by Vincent Bugliosi, the most thorough debunking ever of all the other theories.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog, and of course you are welcome to your opinion, but mine is based on nearly a lifetime of study and thought.
How come nobody ever mentions that James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was a democrat?
Paul from Decatur
When the Kennedy assassination was reported in the school, the most common reaction was that, since it had happened in Texas, it had to have been the work of a John Birch Society member or someone else on the extreme Right.
The irony being that Oswald took a potshot at Major General Edwin Walker (ret.), who had some connections with the John Birch Society- such as handing out John Birch Society reading material to his troops.
Paul from Decatur- any connection to Ada From Decatur? 🙂
Conservatives going out of their way to argue that rabid communist Oswald wasn’t responsible for JFK’s murder (with or without Soviet/Cuban help) proves how damnably effective the left were in obfuscating things. Oswald lived in the Soviet Union and visited the Soviet embassy in Mexico mere months before the killing. That’s why the left were desperate to pin the killing on everyone except themselves.
These people can’t even protect themselves yet the American slave voters think Congress will protect the nation.. hilarious and pathetic.
But then, somehow, Trump gets elected—in spite of the media, academia, the intellectual classes and “polite” society all stacked against him—and everyone rushes out to buy “1984”….
Leftists should rethink that (I know zombies don’t think) since Orwell has questioned the Globe Theory vs Flat Earth theory paradigm.
http://alexpeak.com/twr/hdykteir/