There may be no more of a delicious moment in the media than when sanctimonious and condescending journalists have their biases and prejudice tossed in their faces. Possibly more delicious? When it is done to multiple journos at once. This took place last night on the Ambien Phillip program “NewsNight.” Sorry, sorry – “Abby” Phillip. Her soporific delivery is such that it throws me off at times.

Phillip hosted a wide panel and the discussion centered on Donald Trump and his approach to minorities. A racial discussion, on CNN? How on Earth did this go askew?!?! One speaker was conservative Ryan Girdusky, and he managed to roil the other seated members by daring to cite reality. He was referencing some of the after-effects of the George Floyd incident and the ensuing riots of 2020, and he brought up a detail about how other black citizens found themselves unintentionally endangered.

I mentioned the Ferguson and Floyd Effect on CNN... surprisingly, none of the Democrats on the panel had ever heard of it. pic.twitter.com/DckpbqzElS

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 16, 2024

After the elevated reactions and cross talking, Bakari Sellers came forward to first challenge Ryan’s comment, then the hostess Phillip declared this claim was something created by Girdusky’s “own conjecture.” He made the attempt to clarify and explain that this was not his creation, but he was talked over repeatedly.

Girdusky then invoked the terms “The Floyd Effect” and “The Ferguson Effect” - which is the tendency (at least at the time) of police to hold back in activities as a result of not wanting to provoke a racial backlash, leading to increased crimes and deaths for members of the black community - but by this point few at the table were even listening. Their need to tamp down his commentary precluded them from listening to his presentation of tangible elements, which is a surefire way to have your argument blow up in your face in Acme ordinance fashion. Then Phillip continued her condescension by entirely dismissing Girdusky's commentary.

We need to stop you there. You cannot just invent a connection between two things – just because you want that connection.

From there the panel devolved into a mass of mewling complaints, and Phillip had to bring it all to a halt. Sellers then picked up, bringing up “intellectual honesty” and accused Donald Trump of never having spoken up about George Floyd’s death. This was a solid case of intellectual dishonesty, as Trump did in fact commemorate Floyd and his family. But to Ryan’s base point, this panel becoming emotionally reactive exposed their ignorance.

They disliked Girdusky mentioning this “Floyd-Ferguson Effect,” but in accusing him of making up this result of the riots they stepped on a variety of rakes. It was a very real occurrence that was experienced after the riots of both George Floyd and Michael Brown, and it was something that was noted and explored by the FBI. Also of a significant inconvenience to the hysterics on the panel, and especially to the hostess Abby Phillip – it was reported on by none other than CNN.

A number of high-profile police shooting incidents, many caught on ubiquitous camera phones, have given rise to protests over policing tactics that critics call heavy-handed. In some cities, police officers privately report holding back on making stops for fear of ending up the next YouTube “bad cop” sensation. They call it the Ferguson effect.

Just amazing. This is the result of not modulating your emotional reaction and falling prey to knee-jerk accusatory responses. You do not like what someone is saying, so you need to denigrate either their commentary or their character. You certainly cannot grasp that this inconvenient concept being introduced to you can in fact be reality.

Phillip demonstrates this further in the latter stages of this clip above. She repeatedly claims that Girdusky and Republicans say Biden is responsible for crimes during his term but that Donald Trump is not likewise culpable. She accuses Ryan of blaming Biden and Kamala Harris for a rise in crime, and he has to repeatedly tell her that those words were never spoken. Her mind just drifted automatically into that realm, based entirely on her own bias.

This is a remarkable teaching moment about what is so wrong in the press. They are so beholden to narratives that have been spun from whole cloth, narratives of their own creation, that when shown a disqualifying dose of reality, they lose control. The result is denying that something took place, all while their own network previously confirmed the very thing they deny exists.