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In the wake of riots that have spread across America, leaving shattered businesses and wounded communities in their wake, Ben Shapiro says: "It feels as though our nation is collapsing around us."
He notes that what's happening is bizarre, in that most all Americans agree that the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer is evil, and breaking store windows, stealing televisions and sneakers, beating business owners and attacking police officers is also wrong.
He calls it a nonsensical and dangerous game.
A closer look at the players who are fanning the flames.
Be informed.
Shapiro says,
"It's a game pressed forward by the most powerful messaging institutions in our society: our media, who award Pulitzer Prizes to faux history like 'The 1619 Project' which argues that every American institution has been fatally corrupted by America's original sin, slavery, and that every inequality of today can find its roots in inequities of the past."
He says,
"Our celebrities...proudly proclaim that rights to free speech, property ownership, and due process are mere facades for the continuing and malign maintenance of structural inequalities" and too many of our politicians causally attribute every instance of police brutality to deep seated American racism."
"These," he says, "are the lies."
How the media fans the flames.
I've mentioned President Trump's little walking trip across the street from the White House to St. John's Church a couple of times here in this Faith and Freedom Daily column and on the radio, but it bears one more mention because it so inflamed the press who in turn inflamed the public---or at least tried to.
Following Trump's walk, the Washington Post ran this headline, big and bold:
"Barr personally ordered removal of protesters near White House leading to use of force against largely peaceful crowd."
The story is long and labored, counting the ways that Trump, A/G Barr, and anyone else that walked with them to the church misused their power and abused the people.
Molly Hemingway, one of America's great journalists, in my opinion, called them out as she saw other news organizations begin to echo the story of the Washington Post.
She published this in The Federalist: "Media Falsely Claimed Violent Riots Were Peaceful And Tear Gas Was Used Against Rioters."
She says "the media spun a tale of violent, jack-booted cops running rampant through the streets over innocent docile protesters, using tear gas to clear the area. It turns out none of it was true."
She says the "news media reported that the Park Police were unprovoked when they used 'tear gas' to clear the area. If any of that were true, it might be the first time in history that cops without gas masks launched tear gas in an area that the President of the United States easily walked through minutes later."
Hemingway notes each major news organization and how each story took on new and expanded details of how Trump used the Bible for a photo op while dispatching the Attorney General of the United States to remove peaceful demonstrators from his path.
She noted the following news organizations and the actual names of the journalists who wrote the lies.
- Reuters published a video it claimed showed US Park Police using tear gas, telling the story sourced from the Washington Post.
- Award-winning New York Times tweeted out a feature story by NPR headlined: "Park Police Tear Gas Peaceful Protesters To Clear Way For Church Photo-op"
- The Washington Post ran an additional story "Inside the Push to Tear Gas Protesters Ahead of a Trump Photo-op", with journalists claiming there were 5 Post reporters at the event ---"all young women---" near Lafayette Square when federal officers started spraying gas and rubber bullets.
- The New York Times falsely headlined its article "Tear Gas Clears Path for Trump to Visit Church", with a video showing the gassing.
- The Times reported, "His walk came after riot police and National Guard troops used tear gas and flash grenades to clear a path through a peaceful protest in a city park."
- ABC News, George Stephanopoulos reported doubly false: "Police use tear gas, push back peaceful protesters for Trump church visit."
As you can imagine, the far Left "news" had a heyday. Religion News Service, CNN, MSNBC, The Daily Beast, Axios, and others reported, and reported, and reported on the traumatic scene of federal agents suppressing the ordinary "peaceful" people so Trump could walk across the street to a church.
Even former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Fox News contributor Jona Goldberg fell for the lie and used the story as part of their commentary.
The Truth?
The Park Police and the park department finally came out with a formal statement that said definitively they never used gas. The demonstrators in the park had been lighting fires---including inside the historic St. John's Church--- throwing objects at the police and had injured several of them for the past 4 nights. They were not "ordered" to clear a path for anyone, including the President, and they cleared the area every night because the demonstrators were "not" peaceful.
The Takeaway.
This is one incident. This kind of dishonest reporting happens every day on a number of different issues---most all designed to bring down the President. And to present a narrative to the public that will mislead, misinform and misguide public sentiments.
Barack Obama repeatedly claims that discrimination "exists in all most every American institution of our lives" and the "legacy of slavery and Jim Crow...that's still in our DNA that's passed on."
He says that voting for local officials is the solution, and he's raising millions of dollars to help turn America "blue" next election.
But if people elect the same Democrat governors and mayors, why will one more election empower them to suddenly lift their state and city out of the burning inferno of chaos and confusion?
We all know it won't. Because it's ultimately not about politics.
Shapiro says: "Declaring America's most fundamental structures corrupt and cancer-ridden is deeply dangerous. Once a structure has been condemned, it's foundations declared unstable, it can only be destroyed."
And I believe that's ultimately what the Left wants. Obama describes it with these 2 words: "Remake America."
The Psalmist asked in Psalm 11, "(3) If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
He answers his own question: Don't run and hide. Stand firm. Be faithful. Trust God. The Lord is on His throne.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Fearless. Be Prayerful. Be Peaceful.