The Persistent Grievance Machine: Right-Wing Media and the Rittenhouse Verdict
Reactions to last month's jury decision; plus, a look at the Texas governor's race
It’s been a pretty full few days here for the newsletter, and there’s more coming next week—from media criticism to workers’ rights to anti-vaxxers and more.
Plus, a big announcement. Stay tuned.
Let’s end the week with a few things I’ve written recently you might not have seen here.
At FAIR, I looked at corporate media reactions to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.
Here’s part of that story:
“What a sweet boy”
At Fox News, Tucker Carlson (11/22/21) aired an exclusive interview with Rittenhouse, and his Fox Nation show tailed the defendant through the court proceedings, enjoying unparalleled access.
Though many in right-wing media delighted in the verdict, they still found grievances to air. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) termed the disapproval expressed by President Joe Biden over the verdict an example of “cancel culture” in an appearance on Justice With Judge Jeanine (11/20/21).
Friday on Fox (11/19/21), Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro raised the possibility Rittenhouse could sue Biden for “defamation” over a September 30, 2020, tweet from last year (9/30/20) suggesting the shooter was a white supremacist.
Geraldo Rivera disagreed about Biden’s liability, but paired it with an admission that in his view, Rittenhouse had a “clear-cut case of self-defense.” The media narrative on Fox is clear: The jury’s finding cannot be questioned in this case, and the validity of the Rittenhouse defense is an established fact.
‘Anger at the vipers’
Elsewhere, conservative and right-leaning pundits turned their attention to the rest of the media and other perceived political enemies for their alleged roles in perpetuating a false narrative. The not guilty verdict conclusively debunked, in the view of conservative media, the supposedly widespread assumption by centrist media that Rittenhouse acted out of racial animus and in service of right-wing politics.
In an opinion piece for USA Today (11/19/21), legal analyst Jonathan Turley called the reporting on the trial and Rittenhouse himself the result of “passion” overwhelming clear-eyed reasoning, and fretted that there would be more “misinformation” spread as political polarization continues.
“The growing disconnect between actual crimes and their coverage is unlikely to change in our age of rage,” Turley wrote. “Rittenhouse had to be convicted to fulfill the narrative, and any acquittal had to be evidence of a racist jury picked to carry out racist justice.”
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox and NBC star who now hosts a show on SiriusXM, tweeted that she had “relief for Kyle, yes, but also anger at the vipers who did this to him” in the minutes following the verdict while she was on air.
At Blue Tent, I wrote about how Beto O’Rourke joining the Texas governor’s race could impact down ballot races—even as O’Rourke himself has a lot of work to do to earn the trust of Texas Democrats.
Some residents of El Paso, the city where he began his political career, are skeptical of O’Rourke. Cynthia Renteria, who has known O’Rourke for years, soured on the gubernatorial hopeful after his advocacy for a development project in the city that was later revealed to be backed by his father-in-law’s company—O’Rourke, then a city council member, later recused himself from voting on it.
“He was putting his political career above working-class Mexican American families and neighborhoods,” she said. “Since then, I haven’t supported him.”
The problems in El Paso are a microcosm of the challenges O’Rourke faces. He’s no longer the wunderkind who almost beat Ted Cruz. Rather, he’s seen by many Democrats as the man who threw away a chance at a 51st seat in the Senate for a vanity presidential campaign. And the success of Powered by People isn’t enough to change that perception for activists like Renteria, just the type of voter O’Rourke will need to activate to win.
But even if O’Rourke falls short in his push for the governor’s office, his candidacy may bring Texas Democrats more electoral gains—and in that regard, it will be a success.
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