Jussie Smollett and the Mainstream Media
If you are an American, no matter where you sit on the
political spectrum, the Jussie Smollett affair has to rub you wrong. As
originally conceived by Smollett, and repeatedly echoed verbatim by vast swaths
of our mainstream media, without a shadow of doubt, and with no further
investigation, this was horrible hate crime perpetrated by pro-Trump, right
wing thugs against an LGBTQ person of color. Those few voices that used
“allegedly”, and wanted to check further were labeled “racists” and
“homophobes” and other favorite leftist epithets.
That this developed so soon after the situation where a
Covington, KY catholic high school kid was falsely vilified by the same media
for attacking a minority, points up the destructive nature of a mainstream
media without logical, ethical and moral guidelines.
Smollett should have edited his script more rigorously,
because there were elements of his complaint to the Chicago police that were
somewhat bizarre.
Smollett’s mugging was reported as happening on January
29 in the upscale North Shore Streeterville area of Chicago at 2am, at the
height of the polar vortex, when wind chills were minus 20 degrees, not a
particularly propitious time to cruise the streets looking for a leftist target
to mug. The thugs reportedly wore red MAGA hats, and shouted “this is MAGA
country, certainly anomalous for this toney, elitist Chicago neighborhood.
Smollett was seen by a surveillance camera entering his building after the
attack still carrying the sandwich he had bought prior to the attack. And there
were other questionable points that were glossed over by the preponderance of
sympathetic media that rushed to Smollett’s side, just as he planned. The
Chicago police were not as easily duped, and continued their impartial
investigation, to the inexorable cries of “racists” and worse from the
mainstream media.
The Nigerian brothers that Smollett paid (by check) to
fake the attack on him apparently ratted him out to the CPD in return for
non-prosecution, and the jig was up. Smollett orchestrated the whole affair,
including using the U.S. Mail to send a threat and white powder to himself
prior to the staged attack. As a victim of a “Trumpist” backed attack on and
LGBTQ person of color, he milked the sympathetic leftist media mercilessly to
elicit support for himself and condemnation of Trump in particular, and
conservatives in general. To their credit, the right wing media stayed
relatively neutral and did not rush to judgement, waiting for investigations to
complete.
Now that Smollett has been arrested and charged, coverage
by the few balanced and honest right wing media outlets has been pretty
thorough. Detailed coverage by the leftist mainstream media, not so much.
Rather than apologizing for their rush to judgement in their haste to blame
their manufactured “racism” and “homophobia” for Smollett’s false attack, they
are now reporting the relatively small conservative coverage of the Smollett
affair as being negative and detrimental.
This article by the Chicago Tribune give a
pretty decent timeline of the Jussie Smollett affair.
Ray Gruszecki
February 22, 2019
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