Media jumped to bash Trump with Smollett tale
Imagine this scenario: “Hello, CNN? This is conservative media guy Michael Graham — and I’m calling to report a hate crime! I was walking to the South Station Diner at 2 a.m. for some hash and eggs when this gang of millennial thugs jumped me! They were wearing #ShePersisted T-shirts and they were shouting, ‘This is OcasioCortez country!’ Why are you laughing? Hello? Hello?”
If you think the media look stupid in hindsight for pushing the Jussie Smollett hate crime story, you’re mistaken. Once you know the details of the deranged fantasy Smollett was apparently spinning, it’s obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than Samantha Bee’s ratings, the media were acting like morons the entire time.
Smollett’s story was never believable. Ever. Not because hate crimes don’t happen to gay, black men. Sadly, they do. But here’s what doesn’t happen:
Walking out of a Subway sandwich joint late on one of the coldest nights in Chicago history, Smollett says he was randomly set upon by two men who just happened to know who he was, just happened to know he’s gay, and just happened to have a noose and a bottle of bleach with them, because why wouldn’t they?
And so, with a shout of “This is MAGA country!” they attacked. (Fact check: Hillary won Chicago with 84 percent of the vote). Sixty seconds later, Smollett and his still-intact sub sandwich were on their way home. It took him 40 minutes to even call the cops.
Now, as a normal, nonmedia American, what’s your reaction to this story? The kindest word is “improbable,” right? Ah, but you’re not a credentialed member of the Fourth Estate.
This attack is “yet another reminder that Trump’s ascendance and the resulting climate of hate has meant that lives have been increasingly at stake since 2015,” wrote Karen Attiah, an editor at The Washington Post.
“Anyone who thinks supporting You Know Who isn’t tantamount to providing artillery for weaponized bigotry needs to take a hard look in the mirror,” wrote the Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon.
CNN and MSNBC hosted seemingly around-the-clock roundtables blaming President Trump and his racist, homophobic supporters as villains in a story they never doubted.
Much has been made of comments by the 2020 Democratic POTUS candidates jumping on the hatecrime bandwagon — both Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker called it a “lynching” — but their only mistake was trusting the media.
The New York Times’ Sopan Deb complains that blaming the media is unfair because “most outlets reported what was happening,” namely that the Chicago cops were investigating and said they didn’t doubt the story.
This appeal to authority (hey, we just reported what the guy said) might work if 70 percent of the news coverage they feed us every day didn’t feature the phrase “Trump falsely claims …” When CNN/MSNBC are running chyrons during Trump news conferences calling the president a liar, they can’t suddenly declare, “Hey, who are we to say what’s true or false?”
Which brings us to what the Smollett story is really all about: attacking Trump.
The only reason this bogus story (law enforcement sources told CNN that Chicago Police believe Smollett paid two men to orchestrate the alleged assault) from a borderline celeb wasn’t dismissed as ridiculous was because it gave the Trump-hating propagandists posing as reporters a chance to smear the president. It’s the same reason the press packed former Gov. Bill Weld’s speech in New Hampshire last week. Weld has as much chance of being the GOP POTUS nominee in 2020 as, well, Jussie Smollett. But Acosta & Co. don’t care. Weld’s campaign means more Trump bashing, so they’re all in.
The irony is that, at a moment when there are so many legitimate reasons to criticize Trump, the media keep delivering self-inflicted wounds to their own credibility.