OPINION:
After nearly a year of riots, protests and downright lawlessness, the mainstream media is finally admitting Portland, Oregon, has a problem.
“Anarchists and an increase in violent crime hijack Portland’s social justice movement,” a headline in the Washington Post reads. Hijack from who, exactly? Portland never had a social justice movement, it always consisted of anarchists and Antifa.
In August, a Trump supporter was shot and killed while participating in a caravan on behalf of the former president in the city by a man who on Facebook described himself as “100% Antifa.” After the Trump supporter died, a so-called protester took to the streets with a bullhorn to scream: “Our community can hold its own without the police..I am not sorry a f— fascist died tonight,” which was shared widely on social media.
The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front served as an information hub to share protest plans throughout Portland all of last year. The group describes itself as “a decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives dedicated to direction action towards liberation,” and uses a black flag emoji on its social media accounts, which symbolizes anarchism.
Last summer, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler had to declare a state of emergency after rioters started looting small businesses, graffitiing buildings and setting cars and federally-owned properties on fire. The city estimates it will cost $2.3 million to repair its federal buildings alone, after the riots. The Portland Business Alliance estimated the violent protests cost “tens of millions” to local businesses that suffered property damage, looting and lost wages.
Yet, the mainstream media refused to acknowledge what happened last year in the city of Portland was anything but peaceful protests.
The New York Times ran a column in July titled: “Help me find Trump’s ‘Anarchists’ in Portland,” adding “The president has a politically driven narrative. And then there’s reality.”
The politically driven narrative was always that Portland was this nation’s social-justice reform epicenter, and any violence occurring there was no big deal.
News outlets bent over backwards to call the riots “mostly peaceful protests” and they did their live shots in front of buildings engulfed in flames, blaming the violence on the anger and frustrations many people were feeling in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
CNN reporter Josh Campbell, who was stationed in Portland smugly tweeted at the time of the riots: “Update: While there’s localized nightly violence in Portland, the people in line at Voodoo Donuts would never know their city is ablaze. The face masks could be hiding their Antifa identities, or they could be following medical advice to wear face coverings in a pandemic.”
The Washington Post reported last summer, “Violent protest clashes turned Portland into a ‘right-wing boogeyman.’ Here’s how it happened.”
The article then went on to say: “Trump’s claims are the latest in a sustained efforts by conservative commentators and politicians to marry the myth of antifa terrorists to a city where discontent has grown for years over increasingly harsh police responses at protests,” adding, “Democrats and local leaders reiterated on Monday that protests have been largely peaceful, and harshly criticized the federal forces, which have shot and seriously injured one peaceful protester and shoved others into unmarked vans.”
Because former President Trump blamed Antifa for the rioting, and vowed to send in the National Guard to restore law and order to Portland, the mainstream media reflexively had to report what he was claiming was untrue, and police were to blame for the unrest.
Now that President Biden is in office they can gradually admit the truth. The “defund the police” movement has backfired in Portland, with homicides surging 800% in the city alone. After slashing their police budget by $16 million last year, Wheeler has requested $2 million to be restored to return order on its streets. Minority-owned businesses are suffering, and Black lives are being consumed by the ongoing violence.
It was all sadly predictable. If only the mainstream media would’ve paid attention and reported the truth last year. Instead, they turned a blind eye and spun the narrative to hurt Mr. Trump.
It’s the lab-leak theory repeating itself, once again. During the Trump years, the mainstream media lost all credibility. It’s hard to see how they’re ever going to gain it back.
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