The good news is that the George Floyd rioting is starting to die down in some parts of the country. Washington DC saw the National Guard move out after demonstrations became more peaceful. It’s not nearly as bad as last week. That’s for sure. The riots were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. It was an officer-involved fatality. Floyd was arrested on suspicion of using fake currency, a nonviolent crime. Floyd was unarmed. He was reportedly intoxicated when he was approached by police, but that’s immaterial. He was able to be apprehended and placed in handcuffs. As he laid prone to the ground, Officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on the back of his neck and kept it there for nearly ten minutes. Floyd died, but not after audible cries of him saying he couldn’t breathe. It’s all on video.
Everyone was outraged. In fact, it’s probably one of the few times that this incident faced condemnation from across the political spectrum. Chauvin was fired and charged with second-degree murder. The three other officers were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. There should have been protests. There should be anger. The use of force was absurd, but support for protests for anything go out the window when looting, arson, and vandalism engulf cities. Minneapolis burned, New York City became a total warzone, and police officers were targeted everywhere. It was mayhem.
Another thing that was exposed was the level of infiltration the far left has done regarding our institutions especially the media. There was always a liberal bias, but this has shifted toward a new and more unhinged element.
The New York Times ran an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) who argued we should deploy the military to quell the mob violence. The Left erupted in outrage. Reportedly, full-blown civil war erupted at the publication—and the far left won. The paper’s editorial page editor resigned. In Philadelphia, one of the Inquirer’s top editors was forced to resign over a column with the headline “Buildings Matter, Too”:
Stan Wischnowski, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, has announced his resignation, days after discontent among the newspaper’s staff erupted over a headline on a column about the impact of the civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Wischnowski, 58, led the paper over two turbulent periods in recent years, driving it; its sister paper, the Daily News; and its website, Inquirer.com, to reshape themselves as the digital age transformed the news business. He was key in the creation of Spotlight PA, a new multireporter team to provide news outlets across Pennsylvania with investigative coverage of state government. He also was in charge in 2011 when The Inquirer investigated violence within Philadelphia schools, a series awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
[…]
It was the placement of an insensitive headline over Inga Saffron’s column in the Tuesday newspaper that may have set the stage for Wischnowski’s departure. He joined the two other top editors in signing an apology to readers and staff, characterizing the headline, “Buildings Matter, Too,” as “deeply offensive” and apologizing for it. The column had explored the destruction of buildings amid the looting that accompanied some of the nationwide protests over police violence.
This is insanity. It’s authoritarian. It’s un-American. We have the woke version of blacklisting here. If you write something they disagree with, you’re destroyed. If they think your views represent “violence,” you’re destroyed. These were the insane views spouted by college leftists. They’ve graduated and you see where they’ve spread their cancer. Granted, not all liberals agree with these wingnut psychos. William Saletan of Slate doesn’t agree with Cotton on anything, and would never have thought of defending him ever, but he torched the Times for making up criteria that don’t exist to justify their reasoning for coming out against it. The publication released some weak sauce note that pretty much said they jumped the gun. They didn’t. And said there were factual inaccuracies in Cotton’s piece, but that wasn’t true either. As Saletan noted, it was no different than the vicious anti-Trump pieces that run daily. Cotton's column was rather calm, to be frank. It wasn’t about “standards.”
The entire period since 2016 has been a nonstop wave of moral panic and national psychosis. Russiagate, MeToo, Nazi hysteria, with some countervailing panics on the Right as well. Now this. If you allow yourself to get sucked in, it’s very hard to pull yourself back out again
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 8, 2020
The media cry-bullies said that an op-ed in a newspaper was literal violence, but then they say YOU’RE the crazy one for pointing out how crazy that logic is. I’m actually glad they popularized the term “gaslighting” because they are the ultimate manipulative “gaslighters”
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 8, 2020
Everywhere from the New York Times, to Variety, to The Intercept, these 20 and 30-something journalist cry-bullies are successfully forcing institutions to bend to their will and accommodate their sputtering, logic-free emotional meltdowns. The media industry is completely fucked
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
If you’re an emotionally unstable baby who regards disagreement as “violence” journalism is probably the wrong field for you
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
Everyone in US media who offends the sensibilities of Mehdi Hasan should be forced out of their jobs and made to publicly beg for forgiveness pic.twitter.com/bBSI4UKPQD
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
I don't even like James Bennet but I like capitulating to entitled journalist cry-bullies even less https://t.co/GU7DIjOFOH
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
After the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a headline they found offensive, "some journalists could be seen in tears in their Zoom frames." They then released an open letter announcing "We are tired." Within days, the longtime top editor is forced to resign https://t.co/DYxdxdIYex
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
I'm a weird position because I've strongly advocated systemic police reform my entire life, and still do -- US police are rampant with corruption and excess force -- but now it's attached to all these bizarre cultural/religious attitudes that I have no affinity with whatsoever
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 7, 2020
Michael Tracey, a former reporter for the Young Turks, has noted the total breakdown in media. After these scalps taken by the left-wing mob, Tracey said the “the media industry is completely f**ked.” He has gone on a tear against the culturally ascendant and total lunatic left overtaking the activist and media landscapes. He’s not wrong.
“If you’re an emotionally unstable baby who regards disagreement as ‘violence’ journalism is probably the wrong field for you,” he tweeted. “Everywhere from the New York Times, to Variety, to The Intercept, these 20 and 30-something journalist cry-bullies are successfully forcing institutions to bend to their will and accommodate their sputtering, logic-free emotional meltdowns.”
He called them the “ultimate manipulative gaslighters” as well. Granted, Tracey goes after conservative media as well. He takes aim at both sides, and he was one of the few liberal reporters out there who was even more brutal towards the Trump-Russia collusion hysteria. He added that he wants police reform but noted that he wants nothing to do with the people at the forefront of advocating it right now. I don’t blame him. Police reform is rapidly devolving into abolishing law enforcement, which isn’t popular in the slightest unless you’re a total loon, which is liberal America right now.
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