Over the course of only seven years, corporate media hate campaigns against prominent Republicans have incited and provoked three assassination attempts, two of which drew blood.
STEVE SCALISE
In June of 2017, a supporter of far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) opened fire on a group of Republicans, including lawmakers, as they practiced for an annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. Along with four others, then-U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was severely wounded and nearly died.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Fox News at the time:
I was there at the ballfield when Steven Scalise almost died from a very, very angry, violent man who was incited, really, by rhetoric on the left. And this hasn’t been reported enough: When he came on to the ball field with a semiautomatic weapon, firing probably close to 200 shots at us, shooting five people and almost killing Steve Scalise, he was yelling, “This is for health care!” He also had a list of conservative legislators — Republicans — in his pocket, that he was going to kill.
Here are some of the stories the corporate media ran in the weeks just before that shooting:
On Thursday, House leaders came through with the votes to give Trump a major political win more than a month after Republicans’ first attempt to pass a health care bill went down in a humiliating defeat.
“Ultimately, people will die if this bill becomes law. People will die,” de Blasio said. “They’re trying to get rid of the taxes President Obama and Congress put on the wealthy that are part of paying for our health insurance system.” [emphasis added]
Boston Globe: “Elizabeth Warren on GOP health bill: ‘People will die’”
Washington Post: “Here’s what we learned about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests”
Reuters: “Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sources”
Bottom line: “Harvard study: CNN, NBC Trump coverage 93 percent negative”
And so, after parroting without skepticism absurd claims that “people will die” if Republicans repeal Obamacare, a Bernie Bro shouting “This is for health care!” tried to slaughter a baseball field full of Republican lawmakers.
And so, after relentlessly pushing the Russia Collusion Hoax, a Bernie Bro who, just a few weeks prior had launched a Change.org petition under the title “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.,” tried to slaughter a baseball field full of Republican lawmakers.
To make a real joke out of this appalling crime, two things then happened: 1) within two days, the corporate media stopped reporting on the story and 2) the disgraced FBI ruled the incident as a “suicide-by-cop.”
For months, to save Obamacare, the corporate media vilified Republican lawmakers while continuing to smear Trump as a Russian traitor who’d rigged the 2016 presidential election. No one can look at this and doubt the media were looking to encourage an assassination.
BRETT KAVANAUGH
On June 8, 2022, a Trump-hating left-wing extremist traveled from California to Virginia, reportedly planning to murder Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and then commit suicide. He was caught not far from Kavanaugh’s home at around 1 a.m. carrying a “tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, [and] duct tape[.]”
Throughout his late 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, the corporate media launched a hate jihad against Kavanaugh to dehumanize and delegitimize him. This included false accusations of Kavanaugh participating in gang rapes. Further, during the confirmation hearing, the media encouraged hysterical, left-wing protesters to swarm the halls of Congress to corner and intimidate lawmakers, and stall and disrupt the vote. A few years later, after Kavanaugh voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the media (and the White House) encouraged protesters to harass Kavanaugh at his home.
Between the false serial rapist accusation, the lies about how overturning Roe v. Wade would kill women, and an intense focus (using the protests) on Kavanaugh’s private residence, there is no question the corporate media were looking to incite an assassination attempt.
DONALD TRUMP
On the night of Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump, I laid out nearly a decade’s worth of the corporate media’s assassination dog whistles aimed at the former president. Further, the media have not even hidden the fact they want Trump dead. In fact, they have openly fantasized about his plane crashing. They have cheered a play depicting his slaughter. And when the media compare Trump and his supporters to Nazis (which they have done countless times) and tell viewers Trump will “execute” his political opponents, they are not only calling for Trump to be assassinated, but they have also made his assassination a moral imperative.
And now…
The very same media responsible for inciting and provoking these assassination attempts are telling us to tone down the political rhetoric.
No.
The truth is not rhetoric, and the truth is this…
If the corporate media doesn’t get their way, they seek to murder our leaders, encourage the domestic terrorists in Antifa and Black Lives Matter to burn and loot our cities, and then blame the victim and then us.
The world changed Saturday night. The world witnessed the bloody results of the corporate media’s hate. More people than ever have had their eyes opened to the truth of what the media have become: assassins.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.