The unmentioned Charlottesville thugs

[kevm14]

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/14/whi ... ttesville/

[Adam]

Don't worry, the people at the extremes of both sides are terrible.

[kevm14]

That's cool except you only hear about one side on mainstream media.

[Bob]

Guess I missed the report where someone in an Outback wagon covered in Bernie stickers rammed into a crowd of KKK members and killed one of them. Must have been a mainstream media cover up.

[kevm14]

My problem is with the narrative that the "alt-right" basically means "the right" (it doesn't) and that's where all the violence has originated. You even implied it with your analogy - a guy with Bernie stickers on his Outback is the most "extreme" example of "the left" that you apparently could think of.

Let's turn to Ben Shapiro for some wisdom about this situation. Oh, and read the article I linked to in the original post. If you disagree with points made in it, we can discuss them in the thread.

http://ijr.com/the-declaration/2017/08/ ... oups-rise/

He's got 12 pretty comprehensive tweets in there. One of them discusses how the media is actually causing problems by amplifying the voice of these small groups and making them seem mainstream. That is a play that they hope will turn people away from the right entirely but instead it catalyzes additional violence because these groups feel empowered by being recognized nationally. Kind of like how incessantly talking about racism and labeling everyone a racist just causes MORE racism, not less.

[Bob]

One of them discusses how the media is actually causing problems by amplifying the voice of these small groups and making them seem mainstream. That is a play that they hope will turn people away from the right entirely but instead it catalyzes additional violence because these groups feel empowered by being recognized nationally. Kind of like how incessantly talking about racism and labeling everyone a racist just causes MORE racism, not less.

I agree that the media has done a lot of harm by giving credibility to these extremist groups. If someone asked me 20 years ago if the KKK would be getting national media coverage on a regular basis in 2017, I would probably have told you they won't exist by then. It seemed like groups like this had been significantly marginalized (as they should be) up until recently.

I also blame the media for Trump and for the fact that many extremist groups now feel empowered by all the media coverage they've received during the current administration. Looking back, it is obvious that the media tried to give legitimacy to the least qualified (by far) Republican candidate in an effort to undermine the party's chances in 2016. I believe there were even some leaked Clinton/DNC emails in which they specifically encouraged the media to pump up Trump. We all see how well that worked out.

[kevm14]

One of the most offensive parts of this whole thing is that the media acts like they are righteous and seem to be doing a lot of hang wringing over maintaining their "freedom of the press" status. Yet, are they a net positive for society at this time? On some issues, certainly, I think the answer is definitely no.

[bill25]

Freedom of the press was granted to a very different definition of what we know of as "the press". The press was supposed to be unbiased and morally obligated to printing the truth. Instead the current press is printing inflammatory click bait that is totally biased, and sometimes very inaccurate.

[Adam]

Freedom of the press was granted to a very different definition of what we know of as "the press". The press was supposed to be unbiased and morally obligated to printing the truth. Instead the current press is printing inflammatory click bait that is totally biased, and sometimes very inaccurate.

Yeah, and when they are called out on the click bait and inaccurate content, they claim freedom of speech.

[kevm14]

Their general willingness to print classified info is also disturbing.