The ICE protests in Los Angeles predictably morphed into riots and carnage, and it has been an object lesson in how our media complex in this country has devolved. While violence raged for the third night as the number of rioters grew, the press was not content to simply report on the events on screen; there was a constant need to interpret what was transpiring for their audiences.
This desire led to many revealing moments of the press commentary being defied in real time by what was appearing on screen. Yes, not having learned lessons, the news outlets delivered more “mostly peaceful” faceplant moments. CNN had a moment where the network had to cut away from live footage because, as Rep. Nanette Barragán (D) was complaining about Trump sending in troops where there were only non-violent protests, they were showing live a street fire where a protester with a Mexican flag was circling the blaze.
“PEACEFUL PROTEST” — Democrat congresswoman claims the Los Angeles riot is a peaceful protest as CNN shows footage of a car burning pic.twitter.com/DRf0XaDZ1z
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) June 8, 2025
Another Democrat was singing the praises of the free press reporting on the story and getting the information out. That he was saying this to Jim Sciutto on CNN pretty much is all you need to know, as it surely sounded like he was eternally grateful for the chance to frame these riots as First Amendment free expression and blame President Trump for the escalation of violence. And no figure of that network was working harder at recalibrating the visuals than Brian Stelter.
He stands out for only one reason, that being his self-described position as the media savant, so to see and hear him manipulating the impressions of what is being featured stands out all the more. His need to reinterpret what was happening and why it was transpiring was rather transparent. He provided a quote from local station KTLA that was the very definition of reframing, as they took a look at the violence taking place and realized how it defies the insisted-upon narrative that Trump was causing the violence and not sending in the National Guard as a reaction to the existing violence.
"This is now playing into the hands of what President Trump has been saying," an anchor on KTLA observes as police appear outnumbered by vandals attacking Highway Patrol cars on the 101
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 9, 2025
To translate what they were saying, it is unfortunate that Trump was being proven correct.
This was a theme throughout much of Stelter’s coverage, looking for the manner in which the events can be reset to fit their desired narrative. Brian jumped on another opportunity when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others unfortunately shared imagery of police vehicles being torched, which turned out to be from riots that took place in 2020. This was done in error, and using the preferred vernacular of the press, Brian pounced! “Many of the false and misleading posts I'm seeing are from folks trying to lump peaceful protesters and violent rioters together.”
Yes, this was a wrong posting to make, but Stelter hypes this as misinformation in a way to imply that reports of this nature misrepresent what was happening. There is no shortage of pictures and videos showing vehicles being torched this weekend, many of those belonging to police. What Brian is doing is trying to highlight the errors in an effort to minimize the accuracy of verified reports.
Yet here you are trying to shade the protests as peaceful, all while cars are in fact being ignited in the riots. Another form of misinformation.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) June 9, 2025
I know this because I saw live video of the fires taking place on one of the cable news networks. https://t.co/We82AIpcOy pic.twitter.com/moOS2rU40P
Another preferred narrative is that President Trump sent in troops where there was no need to do so, overstepping federal standards. Left out of this reporting was how for days there were minimal police reactions as the city was blowing up, and there were instances of the mobs rushing to attack federal buildings. The heavily implied script was that the arrival of the National Guard was stoking the violent reactions, yet a video of a journalist being hit with rubber rounds was featured, delivering an uncomfortable reality.
"You just f---ing shot the reporter!" https://t.co/08eh6LhfQE
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 9, 2025
Instead of Trump-induced violence on the media, this episode was the result of the LA Police squad, so this was an attack on a reporter at the hands of the force sent in by Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom.
But Stelter shows his cards in his insistence on the “mostly peaceful” script, as he tries to claim that it is deceptive for anyone hyping the violence. He claims it is a “good faith” talking point to distinguish between the riot scenes and the calm, non-violent protests, but what he is doing is minimizing and deflecting away from the violence, in an effort to offset any conflict as being provoked by the president.
His most strained attempt was in trying to sound wise by injecting what he felt was needed perspective. What he managed to do instead was undermine his own network’s reporting. In one clip Stelter is insisting that the violence is being overblown, stating how he is flooded with comments from contacts in Los Angeles insisting the overwhelming portions of the city are calm and not affected by any violent events.
This clip is for all my L.A. friends who texted me tonight saying things like "I'm sure you know this, but 99.9% of LA is going about their Sunday normally" pic.twitter.com/9NwaRzMruK
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 9, 2025
This unravels the press in two ways. Their desperation to say that leftist protests are always “mostly” peaceful affairs implies there is a defined threshold when they become too violent. For instance, if the city falls to only 96 percent that is not disrupted, is it then too violent? Only seven percent of LAPD vehicles have been torched, so "this is not a riot" is an asinine concept, and yet this kind of farcical metric is constantly leaned upon.
The other idiocy in this post is that it carries a tinge of implication that the violence in Los Angeles has been overhyped and is not an accurate portrayal of what is happening. But here is Stelter making this implication on his second night of working late into the evening… covering the violence, as his network had been on nearly 24-hour coverage of the "over hyped" riots.
Once again, the press that loves the camera and placing the attention on themselves appears to be lacking in mirrors at the same time.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.
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