Have you ever noticed how differently Republicans are treated in the media than Democrats?
Every newsroom in the country used to have what was called the “AP Stylebook” to use in writing news stories.
Now you need two AP stylebooks, one for Democrats, about whom seldom is heard a discouraging word, and a second for the GOP, with a hundred different pejoratives.
Two parties, two vocabularies. One positive, one negative — very bad, evil in fact.
Consider the testimony by Michael Cohen last week in front of various Congressional committees.
For example, since he worked for Donald Trump, Cohen was described about a million times as a “fixer.” Democrats, on the other hand, have lawyers.
To prevent the release of embarrassing information, Democrats’ lawyers negotiate NDA’s – non-disclosure agreements. Republican fixers’ NDA’s are “hush money,” or “bribes.”
Hillary Clinton paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrat operatives who then bought or made up false Russian dirt on Trump – that was opposition research. Republicans, on the other hand, “collude!”
Republicans lie, Democrats misspeak.
Democrats plan, Republicans scheme.
Republicans hire lobbyists, Democrats use advocates. Republicans employ operatives or hired guns, Democrats prefer community activists.
If a Democrat changes his or her position on an issue, they have evolved… grown. Republicans “flip flop.”
Whenever an unfamiliar politician is ensnared in some scandal, you naturally wonder which party he or she is a member of. If the “embattled” pol is a Republican, affiliation is usually noted in the headline, or at the very latest in the first paragraph.
If, however, you reach the third paragraph of the story without his party being identified, you can be absolutely certain you are reading about a Democrat miscreant.
Likewise, accusers are handled differently depending on who exactly they’re accusing. Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was almost derailed by the not-particularly credible “Dr.” Christine Blasey Ford. One of the women who’s accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of Virginia of sexual assault likewise has a Ph.D., but how often does the alt-left media refer to “Dr. Vanessa Tyson.” Fairfax, you see, is a Democrat.
Was Jussie Smollet’s fake hate crime ever referred to as “alleged?” Of course not. But all the real, documented, videotaped attacks on conservatives – invariably they are alleged, or “according to police reports.”
A Republican tax cut is a “corporate giveaway” for the rich, a boon to “one percenters” that the government “can’t afford.”
A Democrat-proposed tax increase, though, is an “investment in the future.” It’s for the children.
When there’s bad news about Republicans, Democrats “react.” But Republicans “pounce” or “seize.” Often, in fact, the only way any Democrat woes get mentioned at all in the media is when Republicans seize and pounce, not to mention “weaponize” Democrat scandals.
Of course these are all traditional Democrat talking points. The problem now is, in most of the media, they are simply cut and pasted into “news”, or should I say, alleged news accounts. Whatever a Democrat says is treated as gospel, as long as it might reflect badly on Trump. Right, Jussie?
Let’s talk about legislation. When a Democrat solon finds a way to stop some GOP initiative, it’s because the brilliant parliamentarian (Nancy Pelosi?) has come up with a master stroke.
But when a Republican, say Mitch McConnell, does exactly the same thing, he is invariably called an obstructionist, relying on “arcane” tricks to produce “gridlock” and overturn centuries of “Congressional tradition.”
When Democrats in Congress hold oversight hearings, they are never less than “historic” “explosive,” full of “bombshells.” The Cohen hearings were so explosive, in fact, that I was expecting to see footage Wednesday night of the Capitol in smoking ruins.
Republican-run Congressional hearings are always described as grandstanding, sideshows, overreach and a total waste of taxpayer money.
Social media. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is lauded as a master of the new media – she knows how to deploy her 3 million Twitter followers “smartly.” (Another of their favorite buzzwords – the new synonym for “smart” is “politically correct.”) Donald Trump, with his 50 million or so Twitter followers – his tweets are “reckless” and he “shoots from the hip.”
Most websites, blogs or foundations run by Republicans are “far right.” Strangely, if you read the mainstream media, there are no “far left” equivalents to, say, the Federalist Society or the Heritage Foundation.
If a former one-term Democrat state rep from Louisiana named David Duke says anything racist, every Republican from the president down to the most junior county commissioner is called upon to disavow and denounce.
If, on the other hand, a high-profile Democrat does something truly appalling (like the governor and AG of Virginia, and the Maryland legislator last week), then it’s just…a one-off. Hey, they were trying to start a dialogue and anyway, it was a long time ago, January in the case of the Maryland Democrat who talked about a “n-word district.”
Finally, the word of the day is “smirk.” Remember January’s first big fake-news hoax – the Covington Catholic high school students at the Lincoln Memorial. The kid in the MAGA hat that day was Nicholas Sandmann, and he’s now suing the Washington Post for $250 million.
Every Social Justice Warrior on Twitter said the 16-year-old had it coming because of the “smirk” on his face. That was the smart word of the day – smirk.
So last week the illegal alien from Brazil who assaulted – allegedly – the 23-year-old MAGA-hat- wearing American in the bar in Falmouth was grabbed by ICE for being in the country illegally for 25 years. She got a big-time lawyer and he said, basically, that after getting boozed up, the illegal went all Third World on the American taxpayer because of his “smirk.”
So now apparently it’s okay to assault anyone wearing a MAGA hat… if they’re “smirking.”
No wonder half of America is beyond smirking at the alt-left media’s agit-prop on behalf of the Democrats. The deplorables aren’t smirking anymore, they’re sneering.