September 17, 2024

September 16, 2024

ED MORRISSEY ON BLOOMBERG’S TOP HEADLINE: Trump Pounces on Second Assassination Attempt! Update: WaPo Worse?

We just had the second attempt to assassinate a major-party nominee for president in the last two months. If you’re a major news media outlet, what would be the headline for today that leads your website? Trump Survives Second Assassination Attempt? Secret Service Fails to Secure Former President Again? Or perhaps just Suspect Arrested in Firearm Incident?

Not if you’re Bloomberg. They headline a story that went up late yesterday, just a couple of hours after the Secret Service managed to stop the second would-be assassin. Their big takeaway is … all of the pouncing Trump did:

Take a look at the headlines below that for a taste of Bloomberg’s priorities. The assassination attempt plays second fiddle to Trump’s reaction to it. This story went up at 8:13 pm ET and got updated this morning at 11:19, and it does nothing to inform its readers about the actual assassination attempt.

Instead, they seem most concerned that Trump blames Democrats for their incendiary rhetoric in creating an environment that fosters radicalism and irrational behavior:

* * * * * * * *

It’s never the actual story when it comes to news that plays against Democrats; the story is always about the Republican reaction to it.

Yes. As Jim Treacher has written:

Ed writes that “Bloomberg couldn’t even wait four hours after the story broke to spin it as a Republicans Pounce!™ issue.” His colleague Beege Welborn screenshotted an even more literal “Republicans Seize” headline from Bloomberg:

Her tweet was in response to former Ted Cruz flack Steve Guest’s screenshots of various DNC-MSM newspapers doing their best to sweep this latest assassination attempt on Trump down the memory hole:

And speaking of the memory hole, as Paula Bolyard asks: Why Were Social Media Companies So Quick to Scrub Ryan Routh’s Accounts?

UPDATE: Pouncing, seizing, and now seething! The Hill: Republicans seethe after second foiled Trump assassination attempt.

Posted at 10:44 pm by Ed Driscoll

#HIMTOO? Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrested. The arrest comes amid a wave of lawsuits filed against the music mogul alleging sexual assault.

Posted at 10:24 pm by Ed Driscoll

OPEN THREAD: This thread’s for you.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OHIO NEWSPAPER RIPPED TO SHREDS AFTER DRAMATIC ESCALATION OF TWISTED ‘TRUMP ASKED FOR IT’ BLAME GAME:

Though pretty much nothing the mainstream media does shocks me anymore, I still can’t help but be amazed sometimes at the sheer brazenness of some of the things they treat as news, the way more serious stories are either downplayed or framed, and how they make zero apologies for it – even after being called out.

Case in point, the sickening “it’s Trump’s fault” narrative they’ve shamelessly spun in the aftermath of the second assassination attempt on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s life in three months.

For instance, some outlets declared Sunday it was Trump and not Democrats who should be calling for the rhetoric to be dialed down after the second attempt on his life, reportedly at the hands of a crazed left-winger. Perhaps most audacious was the “report” from NBC News anchor Lester Holt, who said “Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants…”

But anyone who didn’t think it could get any worse than what they’ve already seen come from these people in response to Sunday’s chilling incident and subsequent arrest might want to take a look at a reader letter greenlighted for publication by the Cincinnati Enquirer that quite literally suggested that Trump “brings a lot of this stuff on himself”:

No, really — that’s not a paraphrase by Stacey Matthews (aka “Sister Toldjah”) above:

The paper didn’t have the guts to slam Trump directly, they instead promoted a letter to the editor:

As Matthews writes, “Yep, it’s a variation of the classic ‘some people are saying’ media tactic, and as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) observed, it’s utterly disgusting.”

Charles Cooke writes, “Why, given how fashionable it remains, has the term ‘stochastic terrorism’ not been swiftly applied to this case? As I have previously contended, I consider the notion of ‘stochastic terrorism’ to be a cynical, vague, hollow tool whose sole purpose is to permit America’s self-appointed ‘expert’ class to ‘prove’ scientifically that their ideological opponents are rotten. But others seem to take it seriously. So why not here?” As Cooke asks: What Are the Rules? “If those are, indeed, the rules, then what should we make of the man who tried to kill Donald Trump — that’s the second man to try to kill Donald Trump, for those keeping score at home — having echoed a literal Kamala Harris campaign slogan on his Twitter account”

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE STORY BEHIND TRUMP’S SECOND ASSASSIN TOOK A STRANGE TURN…and It Involves the Media:

Ryan Wesley Routh has a criminal record that spans the Himalayas. We’re waiting to see if he was on the radar for any federal law enforcement agencies vis-à-vis recent threats: the FBI has a terrible track record of being ‘in the know’ concerning future perpetrators of firearm-related crimes nowadays. Yet, in an odd turn, the media had this joker on their radar. They interviewed him. When his name was released, The New York Times must’ve checked their clips because there he was. The publication interviewed him about the ongoing war in Ukraine—Routh appears to have been obsessed with the subject:

To invert Trotsky, you may be interested in Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean that Ukraine will be interested in you: ‘Full of s—’ suspected Trump gunman was rejected by Ukraine army.

There were many such cranks in Kyiv at the time, latching on to the war to pose as international men of action, and boasting of high-level contacts in the Pentagon or CIA.

Regular Legionnaires did their best to avoid them, referring to them variously as “Call of Duty Warriors”, “Volun-tourists” and “Screamers” (the latter a reference to their reaction if coming under fire).

But there was little to stop them promoting themselves on social media, as Mr Routh did prolifically, claiming to be an active recruiter for the Legion ranks.

“Any gender, any age, any skill level to no skill level,” he claimed to Newsweek in 2022. “Yeah, if you wanna fight, come and see me and I’ll put you in a unit so you can go fight.”

Mr Routh, who claims to have had contacts in the Middle East, caused the Legion particular problems by attempting to recruit volunteer soldiers from Afghanistan and Syria, who’d be unlikely to be admitted to Ukraine because of security concerns.

“He was never in Ukraine in any official capacity, he simply decided that he was going to come here and save the day himself,” a Ukrainian military source told The Telegraph.

“I was in contact with him multiple times to request to him that he stop his activities, most of which were bizarre and alarming.”

You don’t say.

UPDATE: Are there any DNC-MSM journalists that Routh didn’t have on speed dial?

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll