One of President Trump's legacies will be exposing the US media as political activists who have polarized the nation by peddling a narrative rather than evidence-based facts and truth.
When Trump tweeted that the media were the enemy of the American people, it caused fury around the world.
Journalists claimed the tweet had placed their lives at risk, and that all they had ever done was report the news. Is that accurate? No, not at all. Several groups analysed all the news stories broadcast about Donald Trump in 2017 and the results were shocking:
Fast forward to May, 2020, and the horrifying video footage of a police officer murdering George Floyd on Memorial Day on the streets of Minneapolis, as bystanders begged the officer to take his knee off Floyd’s neck – which the officer did not do, despite Floyd’s pleas in the video of “I cannot breathe” and “Please, don’t kill me.”
In the video, police officer Derek Chauvin placed his left knee on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for around nine minutes until the unconscious or dead Floyd was placed upon a stretcher.
This is a disgraceful, tragic incident. Riots have broken out in many cities all across America.
Riots is what they are – but good luck finding that word in the mainstream media coverage. There’s no shortage of ‘protest’, but at the time of writing ‘riot’ was nowhere to be seen on the front pages of CNN, NBC, ABC, the Washington Post or in NYT.
In fact, go no further than this full disclosure tweet by MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin:
In one widely ridiculed clip of MSNBC coverage, the reporter, standing on a Minneapolis street, says: “This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly.”
While a building burns in the background.
Another video shows how mobs chased the police out of the station where officer Derek Chauvin was based. Members of that mob then firebombed the police station and applauded as it burned to the ground. These lawless hoodlums took out a few surrounding buildings as well.
The word ‘threat’, meanwhile, is in abundance in those same outlets’ headlines – because Trump ‘threatens’ looters with his “when there’s looting, there’s shooting” tweet. That, according to them, is what incites violence and stokes tension.
These guys have lost the plot, and their credibility with it. When you lie to the public, you infuriate the public and may face serious consequences.
If to you this looks similar to the line Twitter is taking in this situation, then you’re on to something.
A fake picture of what appeared to be Chauvin wearing a red hat that read “Make America White Again” was posted on Twitter. Twelve hours later, Twitter finally added a note warning users that these pictures were “manipulated media,” but the damage had already been done. Celebrities had re-tweeted these fake photos, so millions were exposed to them and an already racially charged environment was quickly tipped over the edge, turning protests into mass riots in which streets were set ablaze in cities across America.
The images of Chauvin in a red hat were left to indelibly burn into the memories of an infuriated populace and were meant, no doubt, to send a subliminal anti-Trump message. Twitter allowed those fake pictures to be re-tweeted millions of times.
Now contrast that with what happened within minutes of Trump tweeting the following:
Twitter curated Trump's tweet, stating he had violated Twitter's rules on “glorifying violence.” Once again, the social media giant has demonstrated that it selectively edits and curates content published on the platform. It seems clear that the oligarchs of Silicon Valley will do anything to ensure that Trump is not re-elected in 2020, and the servile mainstream media will continue to act as propaganda agents of their behalf.
So what about the murder of George Floyd and justice for his needless death? Does it even matter to them? It looks like Trump's legacy will be the identification of the media and social media as “the enemy of the people.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.