Imagine: Media coverage of pro-Life riots in Portland

Analysis by FPI / July 29, 2020

In a May 29 report that is indicative of the major media's treatment of rioting across America, MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi stands in front of a burning building in Minneapolis and says: "I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly."

Nothing to see here, move along. Those anarchists destroying Portland, just peaceful "protesters" who are deeply distraught over America's "systemic racism."

On Monday night's edition of "The Ingraham Angle", host Laura Ingraham asked her viewers to imagine a different scenario:

"Imagine if thousands of pro-life Christians decided to surround a federal courthouse in Texas where pro-abortion rights cases had recently been decided. Now, imagine if some of these protesters were peaceful, but others came to cause real trouble. Imagine if they threw bottles of cement, bricks, and shot fireworks. Imagine if they used lasers at federal officials who were protecting the building. Imagine they made Molotov cocktails and set cars on fire and that they did this night after night after night."

Further, Ingraham asked what would happen if state and local Republican leaders refused to condemn or stop the violence, but instead blamed a sitting Democratic president for the unrest and destruction.

The major media, Ingraham noted, would demonize the rioters, call for their arrest and prosecution, and potentially celebrate the same law enforcement intervention they currently rail against as presidential overreach.

"[The current violent protests] have nothing to do with George Floyd and nothing to do with racial justice. This is about raw power," Ingraham stated. "And politicians in blue states, they decided that the riots are helping them politically. They are looking at the polls and they think that opposing anything and everything that President Trump does or says is more politically advantageous than opposing these criminals."

Ingraham continued: "Sorry, but ordinary citizens do not protest after dark, shooting off mortar-style fireworks at law enforcement ... [they] don't tie ropes to fences or statues or stay out until 3 a.m. trying to set fire to a federal building. They don't do that ...

"Now, again, imagine conservatives upset by the injustice of abortion or upset by the school closures or anything for that matter. Imagine if they did anything close to this."

Free Press International