Two different topics, but the same problem: 1. There is no crisis at the border. 2. And “authorities say (Ma’Khia Bryant) was wielding a knife.”
Thus reported, successively, Politico and NBC News produced two vivid examples of exactly why millions of Americans no longer trust the mainstream liberal media.
The first example comes from Politico, caught in the act by The Washington Examiner with this headlined story: "Politico forbids 'crisis' when describing border surge, despite Biden's own use."
The Examiner’s story began this way:
“Don't call it a ‘crisis.’
Politico is the latest news outlet to order its staff not to use the word ‘crisis’ when reporting on the massive influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Examiner. The Beltway publication's edict, which an official characterized as underscoring earlier guidance from the Associated Press, comes despite President Joe Biden's own use of the term.
‘Avoid referring to the present situation as a crisis, although we may quote others using that language while providing context. While the sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for the Biden administration and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, it does not fit the dictionary definition of a crisis,’ the memo from deputy production director Maya Parthasarathy reads. ‘If using the word 'crisis,' we need to ask of what and to whom.’”
Smartly, Examiner reporter Joseph Simonson literally went to the dictionary to just re-confirm common sense. He wrote:
“Dictionary.com defines a crisis as ‘a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.’ The Cambridge English Dictionary describes a crisis as ‘a time of great disagreement, confusion or suffering.’”
Obviously, either definition fits what is happening at the border exactly.
Thus confronted with reality, Politico…ah…changed its mind. The headline at Mediaite: "Days After Politico Memo Tells Reporters Not to Call Border Situation a ‘Crisis,’ Politico Calls Border Situation a Crisis."
Written by the left-leaning Tommy Christopher, the story began:
“Well, that didn’t last long. Just days after an internal memo revealed that Politico writing staff have been instructed not to call the situation at the southern border a ‘crisis,’ Politico is back to referring to the situation at the border as a ‘crisis.’”
Cue the laughter.
Meanwhile, over there at NBC, the thwarted stabbing rampage by teenager Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio was, shall we say, straight out of make-it-up land. NewsBusters’ own Nicholas Fondacaro caught the Peacock network dead to rights -- er -- dead to wrongs -- as it played make-it-up with the story. Nicholas’s quite accurate headline: "NBC Deceptively Edits 911 Call, Casts Doubt on Cop’s Need to Protect a Life."
He reported -- accurately -- this:
“On the same day former police offer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Columbus, Ohio officer shot and killed a 16-year-old black teen, Ma’khia Bryant. Though the left would like to conflate the two incidents, the latter commanded a huge difference: the teen was about to plunge a knife into another girl. But NBC Nightly News didn’t want to clearly show that part of the body camera footage on Wednesday, and they deceptively edited the 911 call to leave out witness accounts of an attempted stabbing.”
Nicholas compared the NBC report to those of ABC and CBS, noting this oh-so-curious NBC “reporting.”
“And whenever the subject of Bryant wielding a knife was broached, it was framed (by NBC) as something that was purported by police. ‘Just before yesterday's verdict a police officer shot and killed a 16-year-old black girl in Columbus, Ohio, saying she was threatening others with a knife,’ announced anchor Lester Holt.”
Mind you, the video of this incident was everywhere. There, quite clearly, was Bryant, with knife in hand, quite obviously and visibly preparing to stab another black teenage girl with a considerably-sized knife, her hand raised for the strike. For NBC to say police were “saying she was threatening others with a knife” when, quite obviously, there she was on video with knife in hand, was a preposterous omission.
Fondacaro headlined the inevitable follow-up story this way: "NewsBusters Forces NBC to Correct Deceptive Police Shooting Report."
Nicholas reported:
“After NewsBusters blew the lid off of how NBC Nightly News deceptively edited the 911 call and police body camera footage from the police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, the network silently made the corrections Thursday evening. In both instances, they included the omitted elements without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing on their part.”
One can only wonder if LeBron James, the NBA star, saw the first round of coverage from NBC and if that was what prompted him to tweet out a photo of the police officer involved with the threatening caption “You’re next.” Eventually, as the criticism rained down on him, James retreated and deleted.
Good thinking, LeBron. Eventually a second videotape was released by police, this one from an across-the-street neighbor’s security camera that captured Bryant shrieking to her would-be victim, - again, also a black teenage girl- “I’m gonna stab the f*ck out of you, bitch!”
All of which is to say that in reality the white police officer saved a black teenage girl from being stabbed - possibly fatally - by Bryant. The neighbor, Douglas Brinson, told Fox’s Harris Faulkner that the police officer:
“….could have either not fired and the young lady in pink could have got stabbed in the neck or would have been fatally injured and then responded and shot and that would have been two young ladies possibly dead, or he could have responded the way that he did and unfortunately one lady lost her life in the incident that probably could have been avoided.”
Exactly.
So what do we have here with this tale of Politico and NBC?
What we have here are two quite separate incidents. The Politico story revolves around the border, the NBC story around the police shooting.
They are, on the surface, completely different stories. But in fact, they are exactly the same story, not to mention an old story. What was on display here in both cases was liberal bias at work in the media. In plain sight.
The liberal objective -- from the Biden White House on through its allies on Capitol Hill and in the media - is to insist there is no problem at the border, much less a “crisis.” So Politico falls right in line and forbids the use of the word “crisis.”
The liberal narrative on the police shooting was, yet again, white police officer murders black person in cold blood. Thus the deceptive editing by the liberals who run NBC. Knife? What knife? Police were just “saying she was threatening others with a knife.” It doesn’t mean she had a knife, mind you, but police were saying it.
On Friday, Rush Limbaugh’s “guide host” for the week, Seattle’s Todd Herman, led Rush’s show with the NBC story. And dipped into the Rush archives and there was Rush himself from the early 1990s talking about NBC’s investigative show Dateline. NBC was “reporting” on a General Motors pickup truck that, said Dateline, had a tendency to explode. But in fact the example the network provided of an exploding GM truck was, unbeknownst to its viewers, completely staged. What happened next? Here’s the headline from The Los Angeles Times in 1993: "NBC Admits It Rigged Crash, Settles GM Suit."
The Times story began this way:
“In an extraordinary public apology, NBC said Tuesday night that it erred in staging a fiery test crash of a General Motors pickup truck for its ‘Dateline NBC’ news program and agreed to settle a defamation suit filed by the auto maker.
‘We deeply regret we included the inappropriate demonstration in our ‘Dateline’ report,’ said a statement read by NBC News co-anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips Tuesday night. ‘We apologize to our viewers and to General Motors. We have also concluded that unscientific demonstrations should have no place in hard news stories at NBC. That’s our new policy.’
The apology, still being negotiated within five minutes of air time, was part of a settlement of a lawsuit GM filed Monday over film used in a Nov. 17 segment of ‘Dateline.’
In its apology, NBC admitted that it had used incendiary devices to ensure that a fire would erupt if gasoline leaked from the truck being hit by a test car. The 15-minute segment was addressing critics’ charges that GM’s full-size pickup trucks built between 1973 and 1987 are unsafe because their gasoline tanks are on the sides of the trucks, outside the frame.”
That was NBC -- in 1993. It is now 2021 -- 28 full years later.
Which is another way of saying, that when it comes to the liberal media and playing games with the facts and the truth, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Shocking.
Not.
