Remember those helpful tips that went around recently for women who might be quarantining with an abusive partner? I’m beginning to wonder if CNN needs similar guidance.
The onetime pioneer in cable news had its headquarters in Atlanta mobbed by rioters Saturday night, and yet, CNN’s reporters and their colleagues in the national media are scrambling to find an excuse, any excuse, for the appalling violence taking place across the country.
The protests are mostly nonviolent! Their anger is justified! They didn’t mean it! They still love me!
The media and Democrats have idealized the protests, portraying them exclusively as peaceful anti-racist, anti-police brutality rallies, even as Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other major cities erupt in flames.
Naturally, it was only a matter of time before random visitors, white nationalists, and — who else? — Russia were blamed.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said most of the arrests linked to the rioting from Friday to Saturday were of people who came from outside the state. And yet, Minnesota Public Radio looked at police records and found that 83% of bookings were of state residents. A majority, 56%, were from Minneapolis, where black man George Floyd died after being pinned to the ground underneath the knee of a white police officer.
Liberal MSNBC host Joy Reid picked up on alternative media reports claiming that “far-right” groups had infiltrated otherwise peaceful protests in order to ignite a race war.
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan also said the rioters included “white supremacists.”
The only data on any “far-right” elements working within the unrest is anecdotal. An entire report by the left-leaning Vice News on any far-right activists engaging the protests is sourced to one journalist’s tweets.
On the contrary, USA Today reported Saturday that it appears “most of the hard-core protesters in Minneapolis are far-left or anarchists, and that far-right groups have not yet made a significant appearance.”
It’s possible to believe that the police officer who stands accused of killing Floyd did something wrong while also believing that looting a Target and burning down small businesses is an unacceptable response. Likewise, it’s possible to believe someone loves you while also believing that love is not expressed with a smack to the face.
But the excuses in an abusive relationship are bottomless.
Even Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, ever in the mood to go along to get along, found excuses for the destruction. “Tonight seeing VERY heavy social media activity on #protests & counter reactions from social media accounts linked to at least 3 foreign adversaries,” he said on Twitter. “News networks missing a big story. In city after city we have a rogues gallery of terrorists from Antifa to ‘Boogaloo’ groups encouraging & committing violence.”
Something tells me the the “big story” is not the handful of anti-government wanderers who crawled onto the streets this weekend. The “big story” was the image of a reporter standing inside the entrance of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters backed up into the stairwell as rioters smashed open the windows, threatening to tear the place down. The only thing separating the reporter from the mob was a dozen SWAT police.
But what about the Russian Facebook accounts?!
The protests are no longer entirely peaceful. And the people involved don’t love you, CNN.
