The AP Spins Lewis vs. Trump
26 Power Line by John Hinderaker
The biggest news story of the day, apparently, is the dustup between Rep. John Lewis and Donald Trump, about which I wrote this morning. Although the story has little real significance, the Associated Press, the most influential news source in the U.S., spins it furiously to drive its anti-Trump narrative.
Start with the headline: “Trump unleashes Twitter attack against civil rights legend.” Most people only read headlines, and this one gives no clue that it was Lewis, not Trump, who started the fight by saying on Meet the Press that Trump will be an illegitimate president. And Lewis is identified as a “civil rights legend,” not as a hyper-partisan Democratic politician, which is what he is. Now to the article:
Donald Trump tore into civil rights legend John Lewis for questioning the legitimacy of the Republican billionaire’s White House victory, intensifying a feud with the black congressman days before the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and as the first African-American president prepares to leave office.
Enough with the “civil rights legend”! That was 50 years ago, and has nothing to do with Lewis’s claim that Trump is an illegitimate president-elect, or Trump’s Twitter riposte to the effect that Lewis is an ineffective Congressman. Nor does the impending Martin Luther King day, or the departure of Barack Obama from office, have any relevance. These references are just thrown in so you know whose side you are supposed to be on.
And oh, by the way, did you know that Donald Trump is a billionaire? Is that going to be injected into the first paragraph of every story about Trump for the next four years?
Lewis, among the most revered leaders of the civil rights movement, suffered a skull fracture during the march in Selma, Alabama, more than a half-century ago and has devoted his life to promoting equal rights for African-Americans.
Oh, please. Lewis has devoted his life to being a hack Democratic Party politician. John McCain was a hero 50 years ago, too, but has that ever stopped the Democrats from criticizing him? No.
It also demonstrated that no one is untouchable for scorn from a president-elect with little tolerance for public criticism. Trump has found political success even while attacking widely lauded figures before and after the campaign — a prisoner of war, parents of a slain U.S. soldier, a beauty queen and now a civil rights icon.
The AP doesn’t mention that all of these people attacked Trump first, like John Lewis. And it doesn’t occur to the AP that Trump’s success might be in part because of, not in spite of, the fact that he defends himself against scurrilous attacks.
By the way, here is a drinking game: take a shot for every article you can find about John Lewis that does not include the phrase “civil rights icon.” You will go to bed sober.
The AP takes the opportunity to rehash its “Russians hacked the election” theme, and adds more irrelevant, anti-Trump spin:
Democrat Clinton received 2.9 million more votes than Trump but lost the Electoral College vote.
Translation: she lost the election.
This is the kind of nonsense we are going to see for the next four years. It is all-out war between Donald Trump and the Democratic Party press, and so far, Trump is winning. |
