ROGER KIMBALL: The lunacy of the ‘largely peaceful protest.’

By now, the mainstream media has perfected the mendacious gambit with a sort of stereoscopic vision, saying one thing while also saying the opposite. One of the best of the bunch came a few days ago when ABC, reporting on efforts of those ‘largely peaceful’ rioters to burn down a courthouse in Oakland, acknowledged that some of the ‘largely peaceful’ protesters ‘smashed windows, spray-painted graffiti and pointed lasers at officers’.

Lasers? Yes, they’re a new favorite. As White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany noted when describing other incidents, ‘A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails, another federal agent was shot with a pellet gun, leaving a wound deep to the bone, and tragically, three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded by the rioters using lasers pointed directly into their eyes.’

But then ABC got out the sugar and tweeted this about the Oakland incident: ‘Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified.’

‘Intensified’? ‘A peaceful demonstration intensified’? The Twittersphere loved that one. It brought out everyone’s inner imp. The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto was quick off the mark with a delectable contribution to the general levity: ‘It became even more intensely peaceful,’ he wrote in response to ABC’s absurd tweet. And Steve Hayward deserves honorable mention for this gem: ‘If ABC News covered Pearl Harbor: “Honolulu, Dec. 8: A peaceful flyover by Japanese pilots intensified yesterday…’

Jerry Nadler goes one better than his Democratic Party operatives with bylines: Nadler Says Antifa Violence In Portland a ‘Myth’ (Video).