What is it with the establishment press and communism? The earth's most murderous political philosophy and its most murderous practitioners still get undeserved and occasionally even complimentary attention, while their crimes against humanity get brushed aside, ignored, or downplayed.
A Christmas Day item from Romania at the Associated Press illustrates the point. The first six of its eight paragraphs follow the jump (underlines are mine):
In St. Louis County, police have arrested 19 year-old Joshua Williams and charged him (HT Gateway Pundit) with committing "1st degree arson, 2nd degree burglary and misdemeanor theft" at the QuikTrip convenience store in Berkeley, Missouri on Christmas Eve. Williams "has confessed to the crimes."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch gets today's prize for most absurd headline, as seen after the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post):
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Nick Pistor has quite an odd take on Dorian Johnson, the closest eyewitness to the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson in early August.
The occasion enabling Pistor to publicly purvey his perception was news on Monday that Johnson had taken a job with the City of St. Louis. Before getting to those details, let's look at Pistor's astonishing opening paragraph (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Nearly six years into Barack Obama's presidency, it's still George W. Bush's fault.
Early Wednesday morning, Julie Pace at the Associated Press proved yet again why it is more than appropriate to characterize the wire service where she works as the Administration's Press. The headline at Pace's story tells us that poor President Barack Obama still has to confront the "Bush legacy," and is still stuck with his wars and "big chunks of Bush's national security apparatus." Cry me a river, Julie. One of Pace's more important omissions is the fact that the enhanced interrogations program Senate Democrats are decrying was a creation of none other than Bill Clinton.
Apparently someone at USA Today was either mad as all get out and wanted to make sure its readers knew about today's news item relating to a policeman killing a suspect, or that person fell asleep with their finger on the "Send" button.
Yours truly received four emails between 2:36 and 2:37 PM telling me that New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo will not be charged in the death of Eric Garner:
Certain members of Congress abused their positions Monday to imply that "Hands up, don't shoot" was something Michael Brown actually said before he was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri in August.
On Friday, the Associated Press irresponsibly gave voice to those who say that the slogan is now a "metaphor" for police brutality targeted against blacks, even though the claim that Michael Brown did or said any such thing has been completely discredited by the physical evidence and the grand jury's credible witnesses. In covering the congressional histrionics, Lucy McCalmont at the Politico, aka Pathetico (HT Seton Motley) took things to the next level.
A week ago, New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson put up a Facebook post reacting to events in Ferguson, Missouri. It has generated an astonishing 825,000 likes and 458,000 shares as of 1 PM ET today.
As will be seen later, CNN's print report on Watson's post by Steve Almasy treated the player's references to sin, Jesus Christ, and the Gospel as if they were potentially toxic. Additionally, the accompanying CNN video at Almasy's writeup doesn't show how the conversation between Watson and the network's Brooke Baldwin really ended, i.e., very abruptly.
The establishment press's performance in Ferguson has certainly been disgraceful, especially its role in turning one local death into a national obsession.
One element of that buildup involves Shawn Parcells, one of two men hired by the family of Michael Brown, the 18 year-old man who was killed in an altercation with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in early August, to look into his death. The press, including CNN in a video seen here, has reported much of what Parcells has claimed throughout the case with little if any skepticism, permanently poisoning the well with non-factual and doubt-inducing information feeding the left's insatiable desire for proof of incurable racism in law enforcement and America in general.
Lisa Bloom describes herself as a "Fighter for justice at my law firm, The Bloom Firm," and is "legal analyst for NBC News & Avvo."
NBC and Avvo should seriously reconsider their relationships with Ms. Bloom. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, she seethed over the grand jury's failure to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, she's been a whirling dervish of dementia over "#WhitePrivilege." First, let's look at the crucial Tuesday tweets which exposed Bloom's fundamental dishonesty about Ferguson:
To grievance-mongers in the fever swamp, Trayvon Martin will always be a cute little kid who had just bought Skittles and iced tea, and then got shot by a bloodthirsty racist on neighborhood watch. The truth — that Martin bought Skittles and AriZona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail, two of the three key ingredients in a mind-altering, dangerous concoction known as "lean," and that Martin's autopsy showed "liver damage ... consistent with ... excessive 'lean' usage" — doesn't matter.
Taking dishonesty to the next level, the mythology surrounding Michael Brown's death at the hands of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, which insists that Brown had his hands up and said "Don't shoot!" has been completely discredited. But that doesn't matter, because, y'know, it's a "metaphor" that can't be allowed to go away. The Associated Press, via reporters David A. Lieb and Holbrook Mohr, disgracefully — but all too typically — gave the reality-deniers a 980-word story to spread their garbage (bolds are mine throughout this post):
It looks like the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, is choosing to become an active participant in the covering for the failure by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to carry out his most basic duty as the state's chief executive in a timely fashion.
The AP's unbylined three-paragraph report published at 2:12 PM ET this afternoon acts as if the Guard had a meaningful presence in Ferguson last night. It didn't. It also describes the looters, thugs and miscreants who ran wild last night as "protesters" and "demonstrators."
Two cheers — and two cheers only — for the National Journal's Ron Fournier.
On Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier last night, the former Associated Press Washington Bureau chief observed that the Jonathan Gruber videos about how the Affordable Care Act was dishonestly written and promoted, as well as President Barack Obama's reaction to those revelations, demonstrate that he (Obama) "has destroyed the credibility of his administration, himself, and government itself." Fine. But then, imitating the naive lover who won't give up despite constant betrayal in the hit song "I Can't Let Go," Fournier stated that he "would like to see this bill work."
