By Leah Barkoukis | Townhall.com
The New York Times was skewered
by the left over its front-page headline about President Trump’s Rose Garden
address to the nation on Monday about the riots that are taking place in cities
across the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody.
"You’ve got to be kidding
me," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented, sharing the story
on Twitter.
“This headline represents the
absolute failure by the NYT to defend democracy in her time of need,” former
Hillary Clinton senior adviser Zac Petkanas wrote.
"The President is acting
like a budding dictator. Headline fail, @nytimes," failed 2020 candidate
Julián Castro said.
“This is embarrassing. I’d be
ashamed to work for a place that put this out,” said Media Matters editor
Parker Molloy.
"If the New York Times
thinks this accurately describes what happened today, I have no idea what
country they've been living in - they should just let Trump write their
headlines," Ben Rhodes, former Obama adviser, complained.
“Possibly one of the worst
headlines ever written, and I used to write headlines for a living,” observed
Baltimore Sun correspondent Michael Dresser. “NYT editor Dean Bacquet is a
disgrace to journalism and ought to be fired.”
___________
RELATED
AARTICLE
That 'White Nationalists Causing George Floyd
Riot Chaos' Talking Point Took Another Devastating Blow
By Matt Vespa| Townhall.com
Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
It was yet another night of rioting and looting. Granted,
in some areas, the chaos was not nearly as bad as the previous night. Fox News’
Kevin Corke reported that while last night’s law enforcement response was not
perfect, it wasn’t nearly as anarchic. That’s probably because every law
enforcement agency and their mother were out to ensure the curfew was enforced.
For Democrats out there struggling to figure out how to control their cities, a
big police presence pretty much ensures law and order is re-established. Just
saying. Yet, as the rioting intensified over the past couple of days,
especially in Minneapolis, there was this ridiculous talking point that
right-wing extremists, specifically white nationalist groups, were creating the
chaos. That’s not true.
The reason why the nation is engulfed in flames right now
is due to the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police.
He was arrested for using a fake $20 bill at a local store. Officer Derek
Chauvin knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes, which
resulted in his death. It was a nonviolent crime. Floyd was unarmed. And now
Chauvin has been fired and facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
The three other officers with him were also fired. All of this is captured on
video, with Floyd crying out that he couldn’t breathe.
Minneapolis saw some of the worst riots. Our own Julio
Rosas was there covering
the chaos. A police headquarters was overrun and torched by rioters,
looting was pervasive, and vandalism widespread. Gov. Tim Walz doled
out that talking point, that may be the rioting was caused by white
supremacist groups. Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety couldn’t back that
up. Also, it was simply not true. A former British Army counterintelligence
officer who now specializes in crowd management said based on his reports, the
far right is not there. He did warn that those who are creating havoc are
“hard-core” guys (via USA
Today):
The
real hard-core guys, this is their job: They’re involved in this
struggle," said Adam Leggat, a former British Army counterterrorism
officer who now works as a security consultant specializing in crowd management
for the Densus Group. "They need protests on the street to give them cover
to move in.”
[…]
"There
are detractors. There are white supremacists. There are anarchists,"
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Saturday afternoon.
However,
a civil arrest list provided by the public information officer of the St. Paul
Police Department shows 12 of the 18 people arrested from Thursday through 6
a.m. Saturday were from Minnesota. Five of them are from St. Paul, three are
from Woodbury (part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area), two are from Minneapolis,
one is from Mankato and one is from St. Louis Park. Four are from out of state
and two did not have cities of residence listed.
[…]
Leggat,
the security consultant, said intelligence reports from his colleagues indicate
most of the hard-core protesters in Minneapolis are far-left or anarchists, and
that far-right groups have not yet made a significant appearance. He said
looting is typically done by locals – usually people with no criminal record
who just get caught up in the moment.
And now, in New York City, it appears anarchists are the
ones creating the mayhem. Not even the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is
biased as anything, couldn't find evidence of white supremacists (via NYT):
---
I see the "outside
agitators don't exist and aren't coordinating to cause violence, but if they do
exist they're only white supremacists" narrative is finally dying an
ignominious death.
---
In
New York City, a senior police official said anarchists had planned to
start mayhem in the city even before the protests started, using encrypted
communication to raise bail money and to recruit medics. During the demonstrations,
they maintained supply routes to distribute gasoline, rocks and bottles, and
also dispatched scouts to find areas devoid of police officers, said John
Miller, the deputy commissioner in charge of the Police Department’s
counter-terrorism and intelligence efforts.
“They
prepared to commit property damage and directed people who were following them
that this should be done selectively and only in wealthier areas or at high-end
stores run by corporate entities,” he said in a telephone briefing with
reporters. Such activity was still under investigation, Mr. Miller said, but
many participants, he said, were from outside New York. “They instructed group
leaders to tell the people following them that this was not meant to be orderly
activity,” he said.
[...]
Far-right
adherents generated an avalanche of posts on social media in recent days
suggesting the unrest was a sign that the collapse of the American system they
have long-awaited was at hand. These groups, known as “accelerationists,”
attempt to promote any circumstances that might speed that goal.
[...]
Last
month they were pushing the idea that the coronavirus pandemic and the
demonstrations against shutting down public life might be their moment to
incite discord.
The
groups are not monolithic. There are factions that express solidarity with some
in the African-American community in their animosity toward the police, a
position dating to violent showdowns in the 1990s between white supremacists
and law enforcement in places like Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Others,
however, believe that sparking a race war would ultimately bring about the
establishment of a pure white ethnic state in at least part of the current
United States.
Signs
of any organized effort or even participation in the violence were relatively
rare. “I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or
militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot,” said
Howard Graves, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who
tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups.
Yeah, these aren’t right-wing groups, anarchists are also
not white supremacists. The media has a herculean task of making Democrats look
good in an election year. Well, you can’t do that when all Democrat-led areas
are on fire because their leadership is weak and allowed portions of their
cities to be surrendered to the mob for destruction. So, you blame white
supremacists in yet another pathetic and failed effort to tie them to the Trump
administration because that’s what liberal media outlets do to any Republican
that occupies the Oval Office. And then, reality slaps them in the face. Sorry,
liberal media, this narrative is dying. It’s probably already dead. You propped
up the Trump-Russia collusion myth, one of the most embarrassing exercises in
recent memory. Don’t do this with these phantom right-wingers setting fires
everywhere. The evidence is not there.
