On Friday's NBC Nightly News, they focused on recent political violence against the Capitol Police, but they were obviously more interesting in tagging the "far right" for recent violence, and not the "far left." When the April 2 Capitol cop killing came up, the assailant Noah Green was not named, and his love for Louis Farrakhan was also spiked.
Lester Holt touted “a milestone today in the investigation of the deadly riot at the US Capitol, the first guilty plea.” He turned to NBC Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams, and they were naming names and applying labels.
In a brief report, Williams reported "It was a member of the far-right Oath Keepers who has agreed to tell investigators what he knows" about the January 6 Capitol riot. "John Schaffer of Indiana, 53, pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol with bear spray and trying to obstruct the electoral vote count. The government dropped a charge of assaulting Capitol Police with the spray." Schaffer called himself a "founding life member" of the Oath Keepers, Williams underlined.
Holt then turned to his exclusive interview in Washington with acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman. Almost all of the interview was focused on January 6, including the heart-breaking loss of Capitol Police veteran Brian Sicknick. Then, late in the segment, they turned to the killing of Capitol Police officer William Evans on April 2.
Schaffer may have shown criminal intent in his behavior on January 6 but he didn't kill a Capitol Police officer. But he was named, and Noah Green was not.
LESTER HOLT: And then the unthinkable. On April 2nd when a car slammed into officers manning a Capitol barrier, killing Capitol Police officer William Evans.
PITTMAN: Awful day. Awful day. This department has been through a lot in a very short period of time. I am most proud of our workforce, though. They have been extremely resilient.
The cops were attacked by a car? There was no driver? This is also how radical Islamic terrorist car attacks were reported....a killer vehicle. The Washington Post buried the details in paragraph 26 of their initial story:
On his Facebook page, Green listed himself as a “Follower of Farrakhan” — an apparent reference to Louis Farrakhan, leader of the black nationalist group Nation of Islam. His last post links to a video by the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad that Green said was a “divine warning to us all during these last days of our world as we know it.”
This has been a habit at NBC News. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd paid tribute to Evans on April 4, but never mentioned who killed him. On the April 2 Nightly News, they named Green, but skipped Farrakhan. Notice how Pete Williams put the Facebook message on camera -- and the Farrakhan-loving language was visible -- but they said nothing about it. Unbelievable! Viewers might conclude that the Trump-landslide rioters were at it again....that's some serious bias by omission.
