When Attorney General Eric Holder offered up the Justice Department’s findings on Darren Wilson and Michael Brown, editors and journalists across the country gripped their chairs with tension. Here, laid bare, were the facts of the case. That story they had created – a story that caused millions of dollars in property damage and set racial relations back a decade – was almost wholly false. This had already been proven, of course, but now we had one of Brown’s biggest cheerleaders throwing up his hands, saying, sorry, there’s nothing we can do.
One might have hoped the media would do one of two things. The responsible thing would have been to have a moment of apology and chagrin. Write articles acknowledging how they failed their readers who depended on them for accuracy. Make statements vowing to clean up their reporting. But since that has about as much chance of happening as a real investigation into Benghazi, let’s move on to option two. Here, they could quietly report on the DOJ’s findings and simply move on. Weather their earned criticism in silence and perhaps hold some private, closed-door meetings about choosing narratives in the future.
Or, they could do as The New York Times chose to do, and stick to their favorite story regardless of how much evidence comes out to contradict it. As properly excoriated by Rush Limbaugh on last Friday’s program, the Times reported on Holder’s findings by claiming it “cast doubt” on the idea of “hands up, don’t shoot.” That’s one way to put it, I guess. Another way would be: Holder’s report demolished any notion that Brown might have been surrendering at the time of his death. Because that’s what it did.
But that’s not good enough for the journalists and activists who would have to admit they’d propagated deception the whole time. So instead of humbling themselves before the evidence, the Times and other outlets are choosing to repaint the picture. It doesn’t really matter, the details of this specific incident. This is about a larger picture of racism.
But…but…what is? If Holder’s findings are correct – and there’s no reason they wouldn’t be, because he would have given anything to bring charges against Wilson – then nothing happened worthy of protest. A man attacked a cop, tried to take his gun, and was put down using justifiable lethal force. Case closed. The cover of the next Time magazine should just be three words: WE WERE WRONG.
Instead, we’re going to reform the Ferguson Police Department from the top down. We’re going to keep casting Michael Brown as the “unarmed black man.” We’re going to keep moving those goalposts until something sticks.
And little by little, Americans are going to wake up to the fact that something else is going on here. This isn’t about racial injustice. This is about re-molding the country. False flags. Citizens at odds with one another. This is about keeping things in turmoil. To what ends? Well, when the people are pitted against each other, they can’t unite against the government. In fact, they need the government to come in and clean things up. Federalize a police department or two. Get guns off the streets. Throw more money at people who refuse to take charge of their lives.
We cringe when we see examples of state-run media in North Korea and China. Thank God for freedom of the press, we think. But when that free press has an agenda not far removed from that of the government’s, what do we really have?
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