There are only three constants in life: Death, taxes, and “Republicans pounce.”
As sure as the sun rises in the East, an unflattering story about Democrats will be remade eventually into something about GOP “overreach.” It’s just science. The Republicans “pounce” trope has become so cliche, so worn-out, that I keep thinking reporters at major newsrooms will retire it. But I keep being proven wrong.
Take, for example, this tweet Thursday morning from the Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim:
Senate Rs continue to seize on @CoryBooker‘s remarks that confirming Kavanaugh would be complicit in “evil.”
McConnell on floor today: Booker “hasn’t even met with Judge Kavanaugh, hasn’t heard a word of testimony and he’s citing Scripture. Scripture?”— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 26, 2018
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., claimed Tuesday on Capitol Hill that his colleagues will be “complicit in the evil” should they vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
But, ah! The story now is not so much the senator’s wild-eyed, wackadoodle proclamations, but that Republicans and conservatives are “seizing on” (see: exploiting) said wackadoodle proclamations. Because when a story reflects poorly on a Democrat, it almost always becomes about the Right’s reaction.
I’m not kidding! The “Republicans pounce” bit is a favorite of national media.
[Opinion: Sen. Cory Booker promised to quit PAC money and then turned around and accepted PAC money]
On Wednesday, after Republicans started responding to Booker’s remarks, another Post reporter authored a story titled, “‘Get a grip’: Republicans seize on Booker comment that Kavanaugh supporters are ‘complicit’ in ‘evil.’”
In April, after a couple in the United Kingdom were legally and physically barred from seeking life-saving treatment for their dying son, who didn’t survive the ordeal, the Guardian published a report titled, “US conservatives use case of terminally ill child Alfie Evans to criticize NHS.”
In July 2016, after former FBI Director James Comey recommended that no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified State Department communications, the Washington Post ran a story titled, “While Clinton tries to change the subject, Republicans pounce on email criticism.”
Earlier, in December 2015, after two Islamic jihadists went on a killing spree in San Bernardino, Calif., the New York Times published a story originally headlined, “GOP Candidates Seize on Shootings in California as Proof of Terror Threat.”
There’s a lot more where this comes from.
The funny thing is: I’m not sure newsrooms even realize they’re doing this. It’s possible the “seize” routine is targeted, anti-conservative narrative-building. But it’s also likely it’s just an ingrained reaction born of subconscious bias. Like chewing fingernails, it’s a bad habit they don’t even notice.
For fun, let’s imagine for a moment what the reaction would be if a major newsroom applied the same tone and message of these “seize” stories to other key issues, including gun control and the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.
Imagine if a newsroom published headlines like:
- As the victims of the Charleston shooting recover, gun control advocates pounce
- Liberal protesters seize on shooting of black man as proof of police misconduct
- “Time’s up!”: Women’s rights activists seize on Weinstein allegations
Call it a hunch, but my guess is that these reaction pieces would not go over well with the public or even the newsrooms that published them. I’d go so far as to predict critics would pounce in response to these stories, and maybe even seize.
