Racism
New York Times David Leonhardt’s Monday column came right out and said it: “Trump Encourages Violence.” The Times is trying to find a rise of hate crimes that it can blame on the president. Trump made some rhetorical flourishes in an interview with the right-wing news site Breitbart, which nonetheless didn’t rise to the level of a “threat,” and certainly not the “white nationalist” threat Leonhardt tried so hard to prove: "The president’s continued encouragement of violence -- and of white nationalism -- is part of the reason that white-nationalist violence is increasing."
On Saturday's Smerconish show on CNN, host Michael Smerconish brought aboard Democratic activist and media darling from the 2016 presidential campaign, Khizr Khan, and gave him an unchallenged forum to hint that the U.S. has helped create immigrants who are fleeing wars and climate change. He also tied defeating President Donald Trump in 2020 to thwarting the kind of white nationalism that led to the recent terrorist attack on a mosque in New Zealand.
There's a big shakeup going down at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) this week. In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the hateful left-wing "hate watch" group disclosed the sudden firing of co-founder Morris Dees. Although the SPLC declined to specify why, reports of racial bias and a possible #MeToo situation quickly surfaced.
Samuel L. Jackson just loves using his Hollywood-manufactured tough guy image to throw his weight around the political scene. This time the “bad motherf***ker” handed down his judgement of all the people who haven’t got on the #resistance train, insisting that if people aren’t bashing Donald Trump then they’re “complicit” and that’s “not fucking okay.”
Entertainment media continue to wage war on President Donald Trump and conservatives, with major networks, cable TV, and streaming services hurling insults and ignorant opinions at every opportunity. In February alone, at least 40 separate entertainment programs attacked conservative values and/or President Donald Trump while promoting a hardcore progressive agenda.
On Tuesday's The Beat show on MSNBC, host Ari Melber gave an eight-minute commentary complaining about Republican opposition to new gun control laws as the MSNBC host also repeated the discredited myth that Charleston mass murderer Dylann Roof was already a convicted felon who could have been barred from purchasing his gun if not for a "loophole" that allowed him to purchase it after the background check took too long to complete.
MSNBC's Morning Joe kicked off the week by discussing President Trump's reaction to the controversy surrounding Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and how House Democrats have responded to her dual loyalty comments. Co-host Joe Scarborough asked Jake Sherman of Politico if Trump, as part of his 2020 re-elcection campaign, would, "Continue to paint Democrats as the anti-Jewish party, despite his own checkered past."
On CNN's New Day Saturday, the show devoted a six-minute segment to the book, Dying of Whiteness, giving author and Vanderbilt University Professor Jonathan Metzl a forum to argue that poor white Republicans "vote in a way that may be killing them" because they are allegedly fixated on voting for race-based reasons. The segment even invoked poor whites in the late 19th century who refused to ally with recently freed slaves on common interests because of racial resentment.
Finally, Taylor Swift has promised to grace us with more of her political opinion. After years of media haranguing and being quiet when asked her opinions on the bad Orange Man (Vice claimed her silence may be partially to blame for Trump’s election) the pop princess claimed that from here on out she “will be more active in political campaigns.”
Precipitated by the recent vile comments from anti-Semitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the House passed a resolution to condemn hate and bigotry in all its forms Thursday. Despite the overwhelming and bipartisan support that the resolution received, ABC’s World News Tonight chose to pretend as though it never happened. They instead chose to sensationally share the disturbing and twisted confession of Chris Watts, who killed his wife and two young girls.
On the Thursday edition of Morning Joe, Daily Beast editor Sam Stein took the bulk of his time to go after President Trump's travel ban in a segment that was supposed to be about Rep. Ilhan Omar's anti-Semitic dual loyalty statements and the intra-party fight Democrats are having over how to respond.
Even though CNN promotes liberal philosophies throughout its operation, an organization of black journalists has accused the network of falling short when it comes to maintaining a proper racial balance among the company’s leaders. As a result, the National Association of Black Journalists has placed the cable channel on a “special media monitoring list,” and a four-person team from the NABJ “will perform further research and an analysis of CNN’s diversity, inclusion and equity practices,” then “publicly report on identified deficiencies in hiring a diverse workforce in news decision-making capacities.”