\n<\/p>\n
The mainstream media has become a key partner in Donald Trump\u2019s quest to cast the small-scale rioting in Los Angeles as an existential threat to the country.<\/p>\n
This is happening in two ways.<\/p>\n
I get that No. 1 is hard to pass up on, especially for TV. But that doesn\u2019t mean journalists shouldn\u2019t make a greater effort to contextualize the occasional conflagrations \u2013 to report on how they are isolated events amid peaceful protests, which are themselves affecting only a tiny bit of a city that is otherwise going about its business unperturbed.<\/p>\n
And as for No. 2, there has been some skepticism in the coverage \u2014 some notice that Trump is \u201cescalating a confrontation<\/a>\u201d with California, and probably illegally<\/a> to boot. But the headlines and the lead paragraphs don\u2019t remotely cast Trump\u2019s actions as the overt incitement that they are.<\/p>\n The message should be clear: There would have been no violence without Trump\u2019s intentionally ordering militarized immigration sweeps in communities where they are seen as an attack. And sending National Guard troops and Marines into the mix, when they are not remotely needed, simply heightens tensions and increases the likelihood of disaster.<\/p>\n The Guardian, uniquely among traditional news organizations, wrote exactly the right headline: \u201cLos Angeles responds with roaring backlash to Trump\u2019s dramatic escalation<\/a>.\u201d Maanvi Singh made it clear where the violence originated:<\/p>\n Fueling the fury was the brutality with which federal agents had approached their targets\u2026<\/p>\n As masked immigration officers ripped workers away from their jobs, other agents in riot gear attacked protesters with teargas and flash-bang grenades, escalating a handful of isolated demonstrations into a clash that roiled the city and spurred several hundred to join the protest.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n By contrast, Politico highlighted \u201cmasked protesters pelting police with rocks, setting fire to cars and waving Mexican flags on abandoned freeways\u201d and blithely cast it as \u201cThe LA standoff Trump wanted<\/a>\u201d \u2014 quoting one \u201cgleeful\u201d Trump acolyte saying \u201cWe couldn\u2019t script this any better.\u201d<\/p>\n A New York Times news analysis headlined \u201cTrump Jumps at the Chance for a Confrontation in California Over Immigration<\/a>\u201d waited until the 18th<\/sup> paragraph to provide the essential context \u2013 and even then only from a critic: Senator Alex Padilla of California, a Democrat.<\/p>\n \u201cThey create a crisis of their own making and come in with all the theatrics and cruelty of immigration enforcement,\u201d Padilla told the Times. \u201cThey should not be surprised in a community like Los Angeles they will be met by demonstrators who are very passionate about standing up for fundamental rights and due process.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s more of the essential context missing from most of the coverage \u2014 from Georgia Democrat Stacy Abrams, in her newsletter post headlined \u201cWhen Protest Becomes a Pretext for Militarism<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n What we are witnessing in Los Angeles is a dangerous and deliberate escalation\u2014one we\u2019ve seen in authoritarian regimes, not in democracies.\u00a0When dissent is met with armed force, when peaceful protest is pushed into chaos, and when the military is used to silence communities rather than serve them, we\u2019re no longer debating policy. We\u2019re facing tyranny at our doorstep. The steps are clear: identify a target that you can demonize, strip away protections and then use their understandable panic to justify over-reaction and the erosion of rights.<\/p>\n Despite the propaganda about law and order, the protests in Los Angeles are about ICE raids that have torn families apart and terrorized communities. They have been overwhelmingly peaceful. California\u2019s governor and Los Angeles\u2019s mayor have both said they have the resources to manage isolated incidents. But Trump doesn\u2019t want calm. He wants conflict\u2014because he thinks fear keeps him in power.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n American Prospect editor David Dayen<\/a> scolded mainstream reporters:<\/p>\n These protests, which have been abbreviated in the media as \u201cunrest,\u201d were actually a cry of hope, and a reminder of the human need for community, the need to turn to each other to find something to believe in.\u2026<\/p>\n But the infinitesimally small number of acts tarring the proceedings with a dubious tag of violence cannot compete with the core reasons why people are in the streets. Thousands are willing to rise up against the snatching of their family and friends and neighbors. Thousands more are likely to join them in the coming days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Joy-Ann Reid explained in her newsletter that \u201cthere is no crisis in Los Angeles that ICE didn\u2019t cause<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Bottom line: do not buy the mainstream media and regime narrative that Los Angeles is in the midst of a conflagration that could in any way necessitate federal military intervention. What is happening in the vast majority of this city, as my The Joy Reid Show team and I have personally observed, is absolute normality \u2014 well, normality in the L.A. sense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There are signs here and there that our top journalists are getting closer to casting Trump\u2019s incitement as what it is.<\/p>\n The Washington Post this morning published a strong story about the view from LA,\u00a0 headlined \u201c\u2018He\u2019s waging a war on us\u2019: As Trump escalates, Angelenos defend their city<\/a>.\u201d (It was, however, on page A6.)<\/p>\n And the Times and the Post both published stories in recent days on Trump\u2019s unprecedented seizing of authority: \u201cTrump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say<\/a>\u201d and \u201cFor Trump, seizing emergency powers has become central to governing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n But what remains lacking in the daily lead stories about incremental events is a full-throated acknowledgement, in the institutional voice, that Trump is fueling the fires he claims to be putting out.<\/p>\n The next time Trump sends more troops into Los Angeles \u2014 or orders a new round of immigration raids in blue states, or deports immigrants without due process to third countries \u2014 \u00a0the headlines and the lead paragraphs should make it clear that he is exceeding his powers purely for personal and political gain, that he is taking one step closer to tyranny, and that he is creating crises, not controlling them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The mainstream media has become a key partner in Donald Trump\u2019s quest to cast the small-scale rioting in Los Angeles as an existential threat to the country. This is happening in two ways. The media is focusing on the visually dramatic rioting and property damage rather than the overwhelmingly peaceful expressions of support for friends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118851],"tags":[118853,118852,118854,24310,11678],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-288105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trumps-second-term","tag-abetting","tag-aiding","tag-incitement","tag-journalists","tag-trumps"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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