Thread: How the Media Helps Foster Trumpian Narratives
The story: "Hundreds of demonstrators faced off in downtown Louisville ahead of the Kentucky Derby on Sat., with guns & camouflage replacing the traditional scene of colorful hats and bespoke suits."... "There were visible firearms being carried by members of both groups." 2/
The implication: 2 groups, each wielding guns & dressed in militaristic garb confronted each other. One group: the "protestors"; the other group, counter-protestors. Both groups were "armed activists." In other words, an "equivalence" between protestors and counter-protestors. 3/
Fact: 3 (not 2) groups: the original demonstrators, who did NOT carry guns & 2 militia groups, the white "Vikings" & the Black NFAC. The NFAC marched in formation, but did not "face off" w. any other group. The "Vikings" did , without police intervening . 4/
A "Viking" aggressively challenges a BLM demonstrator . Police did not intervene in such intimidation. 5/ 
Fact: The NFAC is NOT connected to the BLM movement or the organized protest. "We are a Black militia,” its leader has emphasized. “We aren't protesters, we aren't demonstrators. We don't come to sing, we don't come to chant.” They eventually left when asked to by locals. 5/
The Vikings also left & the protest continued, with no shots beings fired.
So in what way did "the scene mirror many of the hostile showdowns across the country as peaceful protests over racial inequality have descended into riots...?" That's how Wash Po put it; However: 6/
So in what way did "the scene mirror many of the hostile showdowns across the country as peaceful protests over racial inequality have descended into riots...?" That's how Wash Po put it; However: 6/
The demonstrators, who had been protesting the failure to indict police for Breonna Taylor's murder for 100 days, did not "descend" into riots. They were NOT "armed activists." They did not aggressively confront the Vikings. 7/
By erasing the differences between the protestors, the Vikings, and the NFAC--by describing them all as "armed activists"--and by collapsing the Louisville events into yet another stage set for "rioting," the Wash Po is creating yet another set of false equivalences, and....8/
....worse, helps to foster the Trumpian narrative which holds peaceful demonstrators responsible for the chaos caused by those who, encouraged by Trump, try to deprive protestors of their right to assemble.
The mainstream media has got to do better! 9.
The mainstream media has got to do better! 9.
A better representation, from a local paper:
courier-journal.com/story/news/loc…
courier-journal.com/story/news/loc…
@threadreaderapp Please unroll. And have a good day!!
