President Trump (obviously) wasn’t responsible for the shooting deaths of 5 Maryland newspaper staffers yesterday. But the media openly and desperately wanted him to be.
Why do I say that? Why do I accuse our intrepid media class who, day after day, diligently uncovers the slimy corruption in the Trump Administration of imputing blame for a shooting on the President?
Well, frankly, because of tweets like this:
Supporting local journalism is important, what happened today is sickening. This alleged gunman appears to have had a longstanding grudge against the paper and little else is known so far. But Trump is the only president in memory to call the press “the enemy of the people.” https://t.co/QmGBikZh0L
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 29, 2018
We now know that the man who killed 5 at the Capital-Gazette newsroom was not motivated by ideology or politics. His was a personal grudge against a paper with a strictly local beat. National politics has nothing whatsoever to do with it. (RELATED: Annapolis Shooter Identified, Called Gazette His ‘Sworn Blood Enemies’).
Yet, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, leftwing journalists near and far assigned blame to Trump, even when they admitted not all the facts were in. Take a long look at these:
Editor for @reuters, @rob1cox just deleted his tweet claiming Trump had blood on his hands for this shooting. pic.twitter.com/ftNrTytWgZ
— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) June 29, 2018
I know we’re not supposed to jump to conclusions about motive but it sure would be nice if “incited by the president and right-wing pundits’ constant demonization of the press” wasn’t a plausible explanation
— David Klion 🔥 (@DavidKlion) June 28, 2018
I’m getting my oil changed in Maryland watching local coverage of the #Annapolis shooting. I teach journalism students. The anti-press rhetoric of the right & the president can’t be separated from this violence
— Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) June 28, 2018
The shooting today in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland cannot reasonably be separated from the President’s mission to villainize the press as “the enemy of the American people.”
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 28, 2018
To my right-leaning friends and acquaintances who with increasing frequently feel free to make “fake news” jokes, that will go from mildly insulting to downright offensive in the wake of journalists shot dead at their jobs. We’ll see what the motive of the shooter is, but enough https://t.co/doiaArMwyq
— Steve Daniels (@stevedaniels27) June 28, 2018
I’m reserving judgment on the #capitalgazette shooting until we know more, but like everyone else, my first thought was: this is what Trump has been building up to since the election and there’s more where it came from. My thoughts are with every reporter and journalist I know.
— Rasmus Rasmussen (@theprint) June 28, 2018
Who the hell do these people think they are? Sure, they feel solidarity with their fellow journalists gunned down by an obviously obsessive lunatic. That’s perfectly natural. But let’s not shy away from what’s really going on: this is excuse-grasping of a despicable, heinous nature. They want to blame Trump for his tough rhetoric about journalism. They want to pin blame on him for anything bad that happens to journalists.
This isn’t just non-objective bias. It’s a pathology of hate. Journalists hate President Trump because unlike any Republican president before him, he refuses to accept the media’s litany of false stories about his administration. He actually hits back when hit himself.
And the media does itself no favors by repeatedly reporting false and misleading stories about him. (RELATED: Here’s The Truth About The Crying Girl On The Cover Of Time).
This has all created a toxic brew where the press is now determined to foist blame on Trump for all of the world’s ills, including this latest shooting that was not at all related to him.
Take a look at how the media prodded President Trump when he returned to the White House yesterday afternoon:
“Can you please talk to us about the dead reporters in Annapolis?”
“Do you have any words of condolence for the families, Mr. President?”
“Why are you walking away?”
Pres. Trump does not comment when asked about the deadly Maryland newsroom shooting.https://t.co/5ZcmEVQW9z pic.twitter.com/heIzI7S4Ck
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 28, 2018
This hounding was completely unnecessary given that Trump had already weighed in on the shooting:
“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene,” President Trump tweeted earlier Thursday.https://t.co/5ZcmEVQW9z pic.twitter.com/4hf5yxfxzL
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 28, 2018
So why toss questions at him about the shooting when the President already released a statement on it? What was the point? It’s not possibly because they were baiting him, trying to get him to say something embarrassing or compromising, right?
Of course that’s why the media jackals didn’t waste a minute trying to get Trump on the record. Their aim is to smear him. And they’ll use any kind of underhanded tactics to do it, including blaming him for a shooting he had no role in.
This guy sums up the thinking of any American still not enraptured by hysterical partisan fever:
We live in an America where, for many, the first thought after a tragedy is not sympathy for the victims but an instantaneous soulless yearning that the killer’s motive can be used to attack our enemy tribe. We are sick.
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) June 29, 2018
Ain’t that the truth.
