Liberal Journalist Points Out Media's Hypocrisy Over Military Occupation of DC

Leah Barkoukis | January 21, 2021 6:45 AM

Approximately 25,000 thousand National Guard members were in Washington, D.C. this week, in addition to thousands of police and other law enforcement officers; metro stations were shut down; checkpoints were set up; and fences erected.

It was a level of militarization that “no living American has seen” before, and one Fox News’s Tucker Carlson said Democrats are using as a clear political weapon.

What's the media's reaction? According to liberal journalist Michael Tracey, they're “cheering it on." They aren’t asking tough questions about the military occupation of the city and they aren’t looking into why it may be necessary or not. The media can point to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but he argues “everyone with a brain by now should be able to recognize that the government was never at a greater than 0% risk of being overthrown that day.”

When National Guard forces were deployed over the summer in cities across the U.S. amid months of riots, destruction, looting, and mayhem, the same outlets were aghast, viewing the military personnel’s presence “as the rawest incarnation of violent fascism.”

“Suddenly though, this unprecedented militarization of DC is greeted by the same media hive-mind as the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness,” he added. “It’s almost like the ultimate variable is not principled apprehension about the force of the state, but whose political priorities are being defended by such force — and who is being punished.”

Journalist Glenn Greenwald added to Tracey’s point, reminding that The New York Times went apoplectic over certain editors running a piece by Sen. Tom Cotton advocating for an “overwhelming show of force” to “restore order to our streets” over the summer. And for that backlash, one editor resigned and another was “reassigned to the newsroom and is stepping off the masthead.”

Two NYT editors lost their jobs in the Summer because they published an op-ed by a US Senator advocating a measure roughly 50% of Americans supported: deploy troops to quell unrest.

Now, Washington, DC is fully militarized with troops and everyone seems perfectly happy about it. https://t.co/6SYSmA3Y2H
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2021