OPINION:
Here’s one for the history books. The Washington Post, the very liberal leaning Washington Post, actually blasted a headline that summed and supported the so-called “right-wing” side of post-Charlottesville things.
Check the skies. Pigs must be flying.
“Black-clad antifa attack peaceful right wing demonstrators in Berkeley,” the Monday headline sang.
How’d that one sneak by the copy desk? It’s a headline that could have come from the likes of the Daily Caller — or, for that matter, the Washington Times.
And the story didn’t disappoint.
The opener: “Their faces hidden behind black bandannas and hoodies, about 100 anarchists and antifa — “anti-fascist” — barreled into a protest Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a ’Rally Against hate’ gathering.”
The story goes on to report how a “conservative group leader retreated for safety” and that “antifa protesters — armed with sticks and shields, and clad in shin pads and gloves — largely routed the security checks” to bring on the violence.
All this — despite the fact the rally against the city’s progressive-style of politicking had been canceled, due to expected violence. What’s notable about the coverage is that post-Charlottesville, the news of that violent clash had focused entirely on the white nationalist angle — that since white nationalists had dared to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, and these white nationalists carried torches, they pretty much deserved the attacks they received from the antifa-types. Forgotten, ignored was the fact that even white nationalists have First Amendment rights, and that their protest was permitted. The antifa-type counter-protesters who came with clubs to demonstrate their angst did not.
It goes to truth.
SFGate reported similarly on Berkeley: “Masked anarchists violently rout right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley,” the news outlet’s headline blared.
It’s almost like the media — the same media that hit hard at the permitted Charlottesville protesters, while largely turning blind eyes on the unpermitted antifa-tied violent counterprotesters that rocked the Virginia community in violence — has taken care to report the truth of this latest rally. So kudos to that. It’s nice to know that at least one common ground point in this fiery political atmosphere is the widespread disgust of violent protests — the nonpartisan, left-and-right meeting of minds that antifa is an evil that has no place in proper American society.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.