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When the radical left feels the urgent need to protest, and to make it saucy enough to go viral, it doesn’t want to observe any rules, or even laws. On Sunday, Jan. 19, a “racial justice” contingent invaded the evangelical Cities Church in Minnesota. Organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong brought at least 20 other people who interrupted the sermon, yelling things like “Justice for Renee Good” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” The church emptied, and the activists closed down their operation about 45 minutes later, once police arrived.
The broadcast networks didn’t want to acknowledge this story, perceiving that it might be a little too extreme for the average American. This was a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act – and everyone can guess how energetically ABC, CBS and NBC would respond with outrage to protesters marching into an abortion clinic and interrupting anyone’s “right to choose.” We could guess the same for Trump supporters walking into a mosque during their weekly worship.
But through mid-week, through early Wednesday morning, these networks could only muster two minutes and 43 seconds between them on their morning and evening newscasts. Most of that was NBC, because reporter Maggie Vespa offered Armstrong a platform to proclaim, “They need to be investigating Jonathan Ross for the killing of Renee Good, not trying to weaponize their power against nonviolent, peaceful demonstrators.” Armstrong wasn’t asked how disrupting (and basically ending) a church service is “peaceful.”
ABC gave this invasive protest 51 seconds overall in those first three news cycles, and CBS News – the supposedly Trump-friendly network under new boss Bari Weiss – gave it only 14 seconds to that point.
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Overall, the church protest, when it had to be mentioned, was merged into the constant template of “growing protests” and “rising tensions” – in other words, we’re going to play this story as long as we can. The deadly riots after George Floyd’s death were grist for the networks to tout a “racial reckoning” – as if the violent deaths would lead to a positive outcome for the “right side of history.”
ABC’s Matt Rivers squeezed the church protest into a narrative of outrage at Trump, “as tensions rise in Minneapolis, as anti-ICE protesters disrupted this Sunday service demonstrating against one of the pastors who is also the director of an ICE field office, though it’s unclear if he was even there.”
The “public” broadcasters didn’t love this story. “PBS News Hour” offered 14 seconds in passing on Monday and nothing on Tuesday, while they did offer an eight-minute segment with the online headline, “Migrant families allege children held by ICE face unsafe and unsanitary conditions.” On Wednesday, Jan. 21, PBS anchor Geoff Bennett did ask St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her if the protest was appropriate in a “sacred space.” She said no, but rhetorically added schools and hospitals into the “sacred space” category.
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You couldn’t find a story on the church protest (other than one AP dispatch) in multiple searches of NPR’s website. But on Thursday morning, NPR did broadcast a three-and-a-half minutes pushing a focus group: “Some voters who backed Trump say ICE is going ‘too far.'”
The Justice Department’s indictment of Armstrong on Thursday offered an exhibit in how much the networks cared about violating the FACE Act. ABC skipped it, pushing instead some fake news about a 5-year-old boy who was “detained by ICE” because his father was an illegal alien. CBS gave it 20 seconds in passing.
NBC’s 27 seconds were mostly Vespa offering the defense lawyer for Armstrong: “Well, now the DOJ announcing arrests of three protesters with charges, including conspiracy to deprive rights. A lawyer for one of them telling NBC News they were arrested doing a peaceful, non-violent protest in a church.”
It’s not “peaceful” to force an end to a church service with incessant yelling.
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Overall, the church protest, when it had to be mentioned, was merged into the constant template of “growing protests” and “rising tensions” – in other words, we’re going to play this story as long as we can.
ABC and CBS also skipped it on Friday morning. Vespa’s outrage in her two Friday morning reports came from the left, after Team Trump digitally altered a photo of Armstrong’s arrest to make it look like she was crying after her arrest. In a brief burst at the end of each report, Vespa quoted a White House X account run by Kaelan Dorr announcing, “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.”
None of the fragments of stories this church invasion received mentioned the on-scene cheerleading of former CNN host Don Lemon, who came along for the radical ride. Lemon later embarrassed himself by getting into a debate with people on the street, where he insisted misdemeanors weren’t “criminal acts.” The media elites know that Lemon isn’t anyone’s best representative of the leftist viewpoint.
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At this late date, the click-baiters like Lemon aren’t practicing journalism now, even if they protest that they are. What they’re doing is making anti-Trump content for clicks, and if that means egging on a church invasion, then they are proud to be part of “the struggle.”
The media elites think objections to the church invasion are a “Republicans Pounce” story, a right-wing narrative, and that’s exactly why they are prone to avoid spending any serious time on it.
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