The media — particularly NBC and CNN — are abuzz about the anniversary of last year’s Charlottesville riot, which Americans had largely forgotten.
The only people who care are a handful of neo-Nazis, and the journalists who amplify them in an effort to tarnish the White House, boost Democrats’ election prospects, smear conservative media, and vent their contempt for the rest of America.
Last year, on August 11, a group of right-wing extremists marched in Charlottesville, some to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, and some simply to spew hatred. The next day, on August 12, they marched again — and so did masked left-wing extremists of Antifa.
There were violent clashes, and a young woman named Heather Heyer was killed after a white nationalist driver drove his car into the counter-protest.
Not everyone on either side was an extremist. The New York Times reported that some protesters simply wanted to protest the removal of the statue. Likewise, not all of the counter-protesters were violent.
When President Donald Trump stated that there were “very fine people on both sides,” while also condemning the violence on “many sides,” he was stating the truth — but the media pounced, claiming falsely that he had endorsed the white supremacists.
Ever since then, the left has used Charlottesville as supposed evidence of Trump’s racism. It is rather thin, however, so this year the media are fawning over the new book by Omarosa Manigault, the former White House staffer and star of The Apprentice who has made sensational accusations about Trump using racial language. (None of these has been proven, and some have been debunked.)
Almost no one wants to remember the anniversary of Charlottesville, but the media — who are determined to destroy Trump — are milking it for all it’s worth, giving a platform to neo-Nazis and white supremacists who would otherwise be ignored.
NBC, which has highlighted the eight or so white nationalists running for office nationwide, is broadcasting a special program about the riot’s anniversary. CNN is running breathless coverage of the planned protests in Charlottesville and in Washington, DC — in between publishing racist screeds of its own, such as a bizarre article advising parents to instruct white children about racial differences.
These are the same networks that have stoked racial outrage for the past several years. When Trayvon Martin was killed, CNN reported that the man who killed him, George Zimmerman, had called him a “fucking coon.” His actual words to the 911 dispatcher were that it was “fucking cold” outside. NBC selectively edited a tape of that same 911 call to make it seem as though Zimmerman had brought up Martin’s race, when it was in fact the dispatcher who asked about it.
Likewise with the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” lie that launched the Black Lives Matter movement; CNN actually staged an on-air protest supporting the myth.
Ahead of the anniversary on Sunday, President Donald Trump condemned racism — again — on Saturday: “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!” His daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, offered a more elaborate condemnation of racism and violence, and urged all Americans to come together.
It is a plea that will fall on deaf ears.
If the media, and the Democrats, were genuinely interested in overcoming racism, they would not be helping a tiny group of neo-Nazis and other losers turn the anniversary of the Charlottesville riot into a national event. They would highlight the ways in which Americans have overcome racism — including the great economic progress that has been taking place among black and Hispanic Americans under President Donald Trump.
But that would contradict Democrats’ talking points for the midterm elections.
If racism did not exist, NBC and CNN would invent it. They are amplifying it in Charlottesville and elsewhere, dividing Americans for Democrats’ benefit.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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