How the news media does it

So Fridays are our lax days.  For dinner it's usually something quick, something that fits in a bowl, and sometimes we actually sit in front of the TV and watch something while we eat.  That's something we don't do unless it's a movie night, pizza night, or similar.  Because of the timing, that's often a chance to catch a weekly does of the local news.

Well tonight, the local news was all about the militia plot to kidnap and kill the Michigan governor.  I've heard little else from the news today.  It's all over the place.  And yes, it is a story that deserves to be covered. The local station we watched spent two whole segments talking about it, talking about militia, talking about domestic terrorism, talking about right wing extremists, talking about, well, anything and everything even remotely connected to anything not to the left of center. 

Contrast this to that same station's coverage of riots and destruction here locally due to the BLM protests.  Compare that to its lack of coverage or mention of Antifa, or the riots, destruction, assaults, violence, arson, looting, threats and even killings that happened for the last several months.  Not only is our local station guilty, but the national press is just as guilty of such double standards.  

It's not just this of course.  Let a Muslim go into a bar, declare fealty to Islam, and proclaim his plans to slaughter for the Islamic faith, and the press is puzzled.  What could be the motive?  No doubt the emphasis needs to be on the inevitable backlash by white racist Islamophobes.  

Let a card carrying liberal Democrat Bernie Sanders supporter proclaim his plan to murder Republicans, and proceed to gun down several GOP politicians, and suddenly we shouldn't even ask about motive.  Let's focus on guns instead!  And it happens constantly. 

If anyone connected to the civilization marked for destruction (the Christian West) does anything, it becomes an indictment on that person, that group, that ethnicity, that nation, that religion, that civilization, that political party, that entire political ideology and everyone in them.  If anyone else does something, however, then it's handwringing and thumb twiddling, pondering whether or not C-A-T spells Dog, musing on eternal possibilities and unanswerable questions, and then quickly moving on.

It isn't fair, it's cheating, playing dirty, and unjust.  It reminds me of that scene in the movie The Verdict.  Not a great movie IMHO, just because most characters aren't particularly likable.  But the acting is top notch, and it's an interesting watch.  

Paul Newman is a down on his luck ambulance chasing lawyer who has the chance to prosecute a major Catholic hospital over the wrongful death of his client's sister.  The always wonderful James Mason heads the billion dollar law firm employed by the evil Catholic Church and its hospital.   It's a David and Goliath story plain and simple.

At one point, the judge steps in an essentially takes part in the actual trial, siding with the defense (Mason) against Newman, who he clearly doesn't like.  Newman then approaches the bench and says something to the effect of,  'your honor, if you're going to try my case for me, I wish you wouldn't lose it.'  It's rather heavy handed, and you have no problem knowing who the evil and bad and villanouse forces are.  

It also plays upon the audience's clear understanding of fairplay, fairness, playing by the rules, and giving everyone a fair shot.  The filmmakers didn't need to explain to the audience that it was bad the judge was clearly biased against Newman.  It didn't need to explain that all of the chips were clearly in the hospital's pot.  It didn't need to point out that this is wrong.  

And yet, how much does the 'press' handle such stories in a similar way?  How often is the double standards, the partisan inconsistencies, the clear and obvious cheating and breaking the rules and reporting based on double standards just the name of the game?  We've almost grown accustomed to it, and I"m sure those on the left side of the aisle are more than happy to see things play out this way, fools that they are. 

For those not on the left, the results can be rage inducing.  My sons, eating and watching with us, were gobsmacked.  They, with all their jaded cynicism that comes from growing up in our post-Western world, were still shocked at the naked partisanship and clear differences in how the station covered this story and how it spent weeks avoiding the same with BLM, Antifa, and anything negative in connection to the political Left.  And that's a station, by the way, that is considered one of the fairer ones in the area.