In the desire to get their story told the press has to manipulate the news in real-time.

The dichotomy in the coverage was rather stark, and not just as a result of favoring a reporter from a partner site. Over at Townhall Julio Rosas has been covering the Minnesota riots from the street, delivering concise and direct reports on his twitter feed on what is transpiring. He was on site last night as police actually fled the Minneapolis 3rd police precinct as it was overrun and
burnt down.

Rioters have formed a makeshift barricade so that they can have cover as they continue to throw objects at police. Police continue to respond with tear gas and flashbangs. pic.twitter.com/xng1oPvGpy

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 29, 2020

Contrast this coverage with the embarrassingly obtuse field report from MSNBC’s Ali Velshi. With fires raging behind, in the frame of the live camera feed, Velshi attempts to recast the events swirling around him. He became the living embodiment of Frank Dremond trying to quell excitement outside of an exploding fireworks factory, as he goes on to say that, “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest.’’

Beyond the sheer comedy of this embarrassment, Velshi’s strained attempt to editorialize about the pandemonium casts him as perfectly emblematic of what we have been seeing for the past few days from the media. There is a desire to mold and contort the storyline coming out of Minnesota in the press, and they have been running into various problems as the pre-written narrative is delivered. As Velshi’s fumbling report shows, the intent to insist the protests are not riots are frequently unraveled by the visuals of looting, vandalized police cars, and burned down businesses and government offices.

This will guide our reporting in MN. “While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as "protests"–not riots.”

— Craig Melvin (@craigmelvin) May 28, 2020

''Just a protest folks, not a riot.'' https://t.co/e1pYFjwvSo

— Brad Slager: aka Wuhan Solo (@MartiniShark) May 29, 2020

What we are witnessing is gaslighting of the highest order. This is the press resorting to the tactic they verbalize as unacceptable, telling viewers to literally disbelieve what their lying eyes are showing them and swallow the narrative being offered by the spoonful. So what is leading to this? What is it that is motivating these journalists to outwardly lie to our faces in such a brazen fashion?

Two factors are involved with the story of the Minnesota riots, and one goal is in mind. The factors are there are highly dramatic, visually compelling uprisings taking place for the cameras, and there is a racial tension behind it all for the microphones. It is a ready-made storyline. The goal for the journalists is to connect this to Donald Trump, hoping to damage his image as a result. The problem is the press is running into constant roadblocks linking all of these items together. Reality is preventing this connectivity from taking place.

The case of a white cop provoking the death of a black suspect is blatant. There is practically no one who can defend the officer’s actions when the video of George Flloyd’s demise is viewed. But as we have come to expect, the race hustlers will get involved immediately, and the press will be there to stoke the furor. The ensuing riots however have not only undercut the messaging of the racial tensions but they have also exposed a localized reality that prevents blame from being dropped onto the White House.

The first is something that is lightly reported — in fact barely noted. There has been a spate of inter-racial strife to be seen in the Minneapolis area, only it does not fit the script of inherent intolerance seen from caucasians. Last summer saw numerous reports of groups of blacks attacking white residents in the city. Then you have the story of Emmanuel Aranda, a black adult who threw a 5-year-old white boy off a third-story railing at Minnesota’s Mall Of The Americas. And if we want racial police fatalities to be the focus the press has to overlook the case of officer Mohammed Noor, a black cop convicted of murdering a white woman in 2017.

But while it is one thing to ignore these examples of contrarian racial violence the press is having a harder time selling the concept of institutionalized racism. They do give lip service to that tagline, uttering it as a way of explaining the outrage felt by the local residents, but just as they try to take the next step of placing blame on the president they trip over other local realities.

As it applies to this region, when assessing blame on local authorities the press continuously runs into the reality of Democrats running what they desperately want to describe as a crapshow. Minneapolis has as its Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who has been at odds with Donald Trump. Frey tried to call the president weak on the matter of his riots, doing so as he allowed his own police precinct to be burned to the ground. He follows a long line of Democrats running the city. The last GOP mayor to run Minneapolis was in the 1960s. Minnesota’s governor is Democrat Tim Walz, succeeding Democrat Mark Dayton. But the institutional challenges only deepen from there for the press.

The police chief of Minneapolis is Medaria Arradondo, the first black police official to serve in that position. Additionally, the politicians from upper offices that could be connected to the uprisings are also of the same party. The state’s Attorney General is the ever-controversial Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s federal representative is the divisive Ilhan Omar, and both Senators in D.C. are Democrats. In fact, Amy Klobuchar is seeing her chance at becoming Joe Biden’s VP selection damaged, as she has a connection to the case in her past offices held in-state.

All of which explains why we are watching the media now running around and telling us what we are watching unfold is actually inaccurate. They desperately want to rush towards the racial narrative but have to gingerly step around the political realities, like so much debris following a looting. ”Institutional racism” is an irresistible catchphrase for them to use, until they are shown who runs those institutions.