Every journalist makes decisions about how to frame a story. Word choice is a powerful tool. Sometimes it is difficult to find neutral words, and so the journalist’s choice is crucial in putting a particular slant on events.
Take the turmoil in Los Angeles, for example. Is it a protest, a riot, an insurrection, an invasion, or something else? The Wall Street Journal reported that the Washington Post reported early on in its coverage of events in L.A. in these words: “Angelenos defend their city…” Spin, anyone?
There are at least three egregious errors embodied in those four words.
If we could shut down the mob violence … it would be worth having to read twisted reports from the MSM about the Trump administration allegedly suppressing free speech.
First, those who are kicking up a fuss (how’s that for an attempt at a neutral characterization?) are by no means all Angelenos. Hardcore leftists have flocked to the City of Angels to pursue their own agenda of anarchy, anti-Americanism, social destabilization, or “revolution” (as they self-flatteringly call it).
Second, the selection of the verb “defend” is highly questionable. First of all, against whom are people allegedly defending the city? From the Post’s reporting, apparently, they are defending it from Donald Trump. Huh? More fundamentally, does one defend a city by acts of arson, looting local businesses, denying people access to the highways they need? Numerous acts of violence against innocent civilians or against police officers, National Guardsmen, and U.S. Marines who were deployed to protect life and property are acts of aggression, not of defense.
Third, what does the writer mean “their” city? Yes, certainly many of those confronting law enforcement officials are legal residents of Los Angeles, and so they are justified in regarding it as “their” city, but “their” also implies property rights. Journalists have no right to speak of L.A. as “their” city when “they” are individuals who are in the country illegally. Are they “invaders,” as Mr. Trump would characterize them? You decide.
My point is that such individuals have no right to claim that Los Angeles is “their” city. And their participation in mob activity is rendering life somewhere on the spectrum from unpleasant-to-dangerous for thousands of Americans who can truthfully say that L.A. is their city.
One more thought about “their” city: According to news accounts, Mexican flags are not an uncommon sight in the mob. The fact that demonstrators wave a Mexican flag while hurling scorn and ice bottles at American law enforcement personnel indicates that they intensely want to live under Mexican rather than American jurisdiction. One couldn’t be faulted for concluding that ICE would be doing these people a favor by deporting them to Mexico where they can wave “their flag” in “their country” to their heart’s content.
The Democratic Party seems to be exhibiting either terminal stupidity or an incorrigible lack of patriotism or both. Once again, they are bending over backward to accommodate and defend behavior that is infantile, savage, and lawless. Spineless officials in California, led by that demagogic eunuch, Gov. Gavin Newsom, grovel for votes from mobs in the street — mobs that express their contempt for American citizens and our legal system through violence and intimidation rather than through dialog and democratic processes.
Speaking of Gov. Newsom, he apparently dared Trump to arrest him. Don’t do it, sir! Newsom, a most ambitious and opportunistic politician, wants the story to be about him. Any attention spent on him would be attention diverted from the lawlessness that he seems to not want to deter. His actions (or inactions) are showing him for the unprincipled person and impotent governor that he is. Don’t go down to his pathetic level. We already know that yours is bigger than his. Instead, arrest the malefactors, decapitate the leadership of the mobs, quell the violence, and give Angelenos their city back, and you will score a great moral and politically popular victory.
Sadly, not many mainstream media reports dare to point out that the riots in L.A. (and perhaps in other cities by the time this is posted) have been far more protracted and far more destructive than the January 6, 2021 demonstrations in Washington, DC. Los Angeles has seen much more of an insurrection than Washington did. Will the left support the government if it prosecutes those engaging in violence in LA. as energetically as they did those arrested on January 6?
There have been encouraging reports that FBI Director Kash Patel is having his agents gather information about various organizations that are organizing, coordinating, and funding riotous activity. That surely sounds like a superior strategy than using agents to monitor moms and dads at local school board meetings.
Any individual or group that conspires to incite violence — and particularly those who pay for rioters to go to L.A. from other states — should be prosecuted. If existing criminal or anti-terrorist statutes are insufficient to curb such wannabe revolutionaries, Congress should craft new laws to punish and deter them.
If we could shut down the mob violence that is turning our cities into combat zones, it would be worth having to read twisted reports from the MSM about the Trump administration allegedly suppressing free speech.
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