CNN’s Brian Stelter continued his role as an unabashed liberal media cheerleader on Tuesday, promoting a pathetic statement from a media trade group claiming The Blaze host and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch incited violence against journalists in an April video denouncing media bias.
While the group Digital Content Next decried Loesch’s phrase “[w]e’re coming for you” as a trigger for violence, a quick Nexis search of CNN transcripts yielded numerous cases where CNN correspondents and guests used that same phrase about conservatives and Republicans.
Of course, no one who used that phrase on CNN received pushback or was berated as looking to cause civil unrest. Further, the video came out in April, so for Stelter and friends to come out against her, that’s weak.
As WMAL’s Chris Plante likes to say, if the media didn’t have double standards they wouldn’t have standards!
Going back to what Loesch actually said, she stated in an NRA video that The New York Times is an “untrustworthy, dishonest, rag” and the video calling them out was a “shot across your proverbial bow.”
She added that: “We're going to laser-focus on your so-called honest pursuit of truth. In short: We're coming for you.”
Loesch has denied that violence was her aim, but Stelter and Digital Content Next don’t seem interested in that. Here’s a portion of the article [emphasis mine]:
A trade group that represents The New York Times, the Associated Press and other major publishers is calling out the NRA, accusing the gun rights group of crossing a line and threatening journalists.
"We were taken aback by your recent criticism of The New York Times," the group Digital Content Next wrote in a letter to NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch on Tuesday.
(....)Loesch denied threatening the paper or its journalists. But Digital Content Next decided to speak out about the video and the NRA's ongoing anti-media campaign.
"It's your equal right to express your disagreement with viewpoints expressed by The New York Times or any other news organizations. The Constitution and its amendments are not ripe for cherry picking," the trade group said in Tuesday's letter. "However, when you use such incendiary language as 'we're coming for you,' it is our right to suggest in the strongest terms that your behavior is blatantly irresponsible as it may incite violence against journalists."
"Ninety-nine people out of a hundred would interpret this language as threatening and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst. Bottom line: It is un-American to threaten journalists," the letter said.
Hm. The statement mentioned how the Constitution isn’t “for cherry picking.” The media love to talk about how they’re mentioned explicitly in the First Amendment, but the passion always evaporates when it comes to the establishment clause and the entire Second Amendment.
Hm. The statement mentioned how the Constitution isn’t “for cherry picking.” The media love to talk about how they’re mentioned explicitly in the First Amendment, but the passion always evaporates when it comes to the establishment clause and the entire Second Amendment.
The trade group’s behavior was akin to what CNN showboater Jim Acosta stated back in April at the Newseum. Both then and since, it’s grown into this either-or fallacy of either standing with the news media or with that bastardly awful Trump administration.
“Without a Democratic president in power to be a focus of its messaging, the NRA has increasingly criticized media outlets like The Times. Analysts have speculated that the group is doing so to motivate existing members and recruit new members,” Stelter added before closing with a quote from The New Yorker’s Michael Luo.
Naturally, Luo agreed both with Stelter and Digital Content Next, whining that Loesch’s videos are “strikingly bellicose even by the standards of the association.”
As stated earlier, CNN allowed “we’re coming for you” to be uttered on their airwaves repeatedly over the last several years, with some directed at conservatives and Republicans.
On July 29, 2016, CNN’s New Day co-host Alisyn Camerota laughed as Miami Beach’s Mayor Philip Levine (D) stated this about then-candidate Trump on the morning after the Democratic National Convention:
You felt it in the arena. And I'm going to tell you something, last night when she walked out on that stage, there wasn't a dry eye in this entire arena. People felt emotionally excited, charged. Everyone felt the connection to Secretary Clinton. And I think that was across America and then probably Donald Trump probably had a tear in his eye because he knew we're coming for him.
Van Jones also used this phrase on April 27's Anderson Cooper 360 in reference to embattled former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn:
What they should be doing right now is not what they're doing. They should say, listen, we're going to give you everything about this is guy. We're going to walk out here with Democrats, arm in arm. We got to say, this sort of behavior from America generals is not acceptable, period, point-blank. We're coming for him and anybody else, and send a clear signal. The reason that you have this story going on and on and on is because they want to throw him halfway under the bus. It's not — I'm going to make a lot of people mad tonight. It's not necessarily political malfeasance to have some trouble in your transition, but what you are seeing right now throws up alarm bells across the political spectrum because if this guy is somebody you're going to defend even partially, he has done horrible things, there's something wrong in that White House.
Finally, CNN correspondent Kyung Lah reported to Wolf Bliter on May 9 from liberal, pro-ObamaCare protests outside Republican Congressman Darrell Issa’s California office.
“If you look this way, you see that the crowd just keeps going on and on. It is on both sides of the street. A lot of people here are carrying signs. They say we're coming for you in 2018. Grandma's going to vote you out in 2018. They are unified on the single issue of health care. Some of them are dressed as the sick and the dying, hoping that he sees that at least. And they have that laser focus goal of 2018 being the payback for that vote last Thursday,” Lah explained.
Now, you won’t see any argument from this space that this wasn’t an incitement of violence against Trump, Flynn, and Issa, respectively.
But according to this trade group, directing that phrase at journalists signals danger for their well-being. In reality, the only tough media criticism that you see as being permitted is the destruction of Fox News. Denouncing Antifa’s anti-media behavior? Crickets! Let’s dig back to a Loesch video from April because we don’t have anything else better to do.
