Protesters stand on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Flag-waving, honking protesters drove past the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday to show their displeasure with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to keep people at home and businesses locked during the new coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
There they go again.
My RedState colleague Bonchie wrote over the weekend about a disgusting straight news piece the New York Times ran with that falsely blamed Fox News’ host Sean Hannity for the death of a man who was allegedly “skeptical” about Wuhan coronavirus claims but who then died from it a few weeks after he took an early March cruise.
To quickly recap: Brooklyn bar owner Joe Joyce, 74, departed on a cruise with his family on March 1st. The paper claimed a relative of his said Joyce “watched Fox, and believed [the Wuhan coronavirus] was under control.” The New York Times inferred from the relative’s claim that Joyce had listened to comments made by Sean Hannity about the virus, comments the paper originally did not note Hannity had actually made on March 9th, which was over a week after the family set sail. They stealth edited their report to note this after the fact.
What made the story even worse was the fact that Ginia Bellafante, who wrote the piece which talked about how Fox News allegedly downplayed the virus threat, herself had downplayed it as late as February 27th on her Twitter feed.
Unfortunately, Bellafante’s article was not the only Wuhan coranvirus-related smear the paper published over the weekend about conservatives.
In a piece also published on Saturday, reporters Trip Gabriel and Jonathan Martin gushed over how Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) “isn’t backing down” against Trump’s criticisms and the “right wing protesters” who marched last week to protest Michigan’s super-strict stay at home orders, which have put hundreds of thousands in her state out of work.
Most of the piece was framed around the insinuation that the real reason Whitmer was being attacked by Trump and Republicans in her state was because she is reportedly in contention to be 2020 presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate.
But in the middle of their glowing puff-piece on Whitmer, the paper managed to find a racial angle to exploit (bolded emphasis added):
And the images of nearly all-white protesters demanding the governor relax restrictions while hoisting Trump signs and Confederate battle flags, as the virus disproportionately impacts Michigan’s black residents, will only further cleave the state.
Less noticed is another flash point. A number of white Michiganders — many of them affluent but some firmly in the middle-class — have summer homes “up north,” as the sprawling upper tier of the state’s lower peninsula is called. Ms. Whitmer’s order that people not travel between their residences — meant to protect rural towns and rural hospitals from being overwhelmed with the virus — has particularly inflamed those state residents eager to get to their cottages.
Of course, for the heavily black work force in and around Detroit that can’t retreat to a vacation home, such an inconvenience is trifling by comparison. Many of these workers plays critical roles running the region’s vitally needed grocery stores, pharmacies and busses.
Now keep in mind that while it’s true that most of the protesters were white, only two Confederate flags were reported to have been spotted at the protest. But the Times’ ran with it because smearing an entire group of people for the actions of a few is acceptable in their eyes as long as there is an Orange Man Bad/racial narrative to push.
It was a disgusting insinuation that the people protesting didn’t care about the lives of other residents as long as their’s could get back to normal. The problem is that the people marching want to be able to get back to work in order provide for their families like those who are working are still able to do.
New York Times writers, like CNN “journalists”, are nothing if not shamelessly predictable. Doesn’t make it right, but it’s just who they are.
(Hat tip: Clay Waters at Newsbusters)
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