News/Commentary

‘A footnote?!’ Front pages of major rags after Kavanaugh murder threat say A LOT about legacy media

June 9, 2022 | | Print Article

While many conservative Americans have gotten used to mainstream media either downplaying real stories, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop, or amplifying fake ones, such as the Russia hoax, the dismissive yawns from such legacy news outlets as The New York Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and more following the credible murder threat of conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh by 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske early Wednesday morning is disturbing, even by today’s politically divided standards.

What should arguably be the biggest news story of the day was met by barely more than a nod of acknowledgment from some of the most highly-praised newspapers in the nation, with The New York Times devoting just a footnote at the bottom of its front page, pointing readers to a brief story on another page.

“Articles that were longer?” asked NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck. “A journo goes deep into the Amazon and a deadly Korean ferry accident.”

Above the fold, where the really important stories go, “we learn the true lesson of Jurassic Park is the friends they made along the way,” noted one Twitter user. “Not sure if the @nytimes could beclown itself any further, but they keep trying, bless their hearts.”

The Los Angeles Times followed NYT’s lead, while USA Today and the Chicago Tribune decided a real and impending threat against the life of a Supreme Court Justice didn’t warrant ink on the front page at all.

Meanwhile, as American Wire reported, CNN downplayed the event and attempted to pin Roske’s actions on “both sides” of the political aisle, though all indications are the violence surrounding the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade has been decidedly one-sided.

“This is an extremely passionate issue,” said CNN’s Whitney Wild following Roske’s arrest. “There are emotions on both sides. Federal officials have made clear over and over they believe the risk truly comes from both sides of this abortion debate.”

Roske appeared at Kavanaugh’s home wearing “a black tactical chest rig and tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crow bar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking books with padding on the outside of the soles, and other items,” according to CBS News.

That might be a horrifying house guest, but MSNBC analyst Matthew Miller stated that increasing the security for Supreme Court justices over an alleged attempt that failed would be a bad look after the Uvalde school shooting, as though the two were in any way linked.

“All for increasing security for SCOTUS justices if the facts warrant it, but doing so in response to an unsuccessful threat while failing to take any real action after 19 children are murdered would sure send a message about who matters and who doesn’t,” Miller tweeted.

It didn’t take Twitter users long to point out that conservatives have also been calling for increased security at our nation’s schools.

“Y’all just spent a week mocking Conservatives for proposing the exact same solution for schools that they just did for SCOTUS Justices,” one user stated. “You’re not interested in real solutions. You’re just interested in being contrarian.”

Another user had a far darker opinion of Miller’s remark: “This is tacitly endorsing political assassinations.”

Melissa Fine
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