Before the trial, the evidence of Derek Chauvin’s guilt in George Floyd’s murder seemed overwhelming. But trials are like sports events — the unlikely can happen. The underdogs play out of their minds and the bounces go their way, while the favorites come in flat and make unforced errors. The undefeated Patriots lose a Super Bowl to the wild-card Giants — and OJ walks.
But as the Chauvin trial unfolded, the prosecutors laid out a coherent case, bolstered by experts and heart-rending, compelling, and consistent eye-witness accounts. The best the defense could do was cling to a ‘just following procedure’ excuse and claim Floyd died from ill-health and drugs — while offering witnesses who had a history of professional racism and expedient testimony.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict convicting Chauvin on all counts. Not one whisper from the jurors has suggested they were intimidated, acted against their conscience, or came to a decision based on anything but the facts.
Unless you are Fox News. Then the decision was a product of a campaign of intimidation by angry Blacks. Acting as unwilling dupes for cynical liberals, under the banner of BLM. Egged on by firebrand and reverse racist Maxine Waters, with an assist from the doddering but inflammatory President Joe Biden.
Leading the distraction was perpetually puzzled, “I’m just asking questions”, Tucker Carlson. He freely admits the evidence of Chauvin’s guilt is clear. But then dismisses it with a screed against the dark forces corrupting America’s jurisprudence — acting in contravention of the centuries of effort Americans have made to ensure equality before the law.
Here’s his take in an opinion piece on foxnews.com (the link is his link):
The images in that tape seemed to tell the whole story. In fact, even if no one outside the courtroom had ever seen that tape, it’s possible that Derek Chauvin still would have been convicted. The tape is that powerful. That’s totally possible.
Unfortunately, we don’t know that. We can only speculate about it, because in the end that’s not what actually happened. The George Floyd video went around the world. It became the centerpiece of a new political movement. Political actors harnessed the emotion over that video and Floyd’s death to control the country and change it forever. And then, and this is the key, in the last month, some of these same people went further than that.
They worked to change the outcome of Derek Chauvin’s trial.
And just in case the congregation didn’t get the point, Carlson made himself clear:
Civilized countries do not tolerate jury intimidation. You see it, you stop it. They don’t allow the threat of violence to influence the outcome of a trial, ever. Not under any circumstances. That would be the opposite of justice. That would be mob rule.
The message is simple — it has to be, this is a Fox News audience. “We (law-abiding, real Americans) are civilized. The people you see on your screen (the Blacks) are a mob.”
Carlson is not alone. Kayleigh McEnany, professional liar and bottle-blond, added jaw-dropping hypocrisy to the Fox mix. After Biden had offered an opinion on the trial and mentioned he had called the Floyd family, she said:
“There’s so much hurt, so much pain. And I think it’s the role of the president of the United States to stay back, to not inflame the tensions.”
Leaving aside the absurdity of her opinion in light of her previous boss, let’s ask who Biden is supposedly ‘inflaming’? He’s comforting the family, friends, and supporters of a murdered man. His remarks won’t upset them. McEnany is referring to her viewers. And who is really inflaming them? She doesn’t need to look further than the company name on her paycheck.
Let’s follow the logic. McEnany is blaming Biden for inflaming people who are inflamed every day by the cable channel she works for.
Talking about Fox inflaming its audience, here’s the top of the Fox News website today. Let’s ask if a LeBron James tweet is the biggest news of the day? And if it is, is it so big it merits 6 out of the 7 lead stories Fox dedicates to it? Of course not.
So why is Fox so committed to smearing LeBron? Do you have to ask? He is everything the Fox audience fears and loathes. Why? He is a beloved, 6’ 9”, 250lb man with an enormous fan base and unimaginable talent. He is a self-made man, with a tremendous work ethic and the adulation of several generations of Americans including a whole lot of GOP voters. He talks with Warren Buffet, contributes to the community, established a magnet school. He has an unblemished personal life, has never been linked to drugs or violence, and has no police record. He sounds like the paragon of the American dream and ought to be revered by conservatives as the epitome of everything they value.
But he’s Black.
And more problematically he’s an outspoken and socially active Black who has been vocal in highlighting the injustices suffered by African-Americans. A previously prominent Black basketball super-star — when asked why he didn’t speak up on civil rights issues — reportedly said “Republicans buy sneakers too”. Which is why he never engendered the vituperation leveled against LeBron. (In fairness, let’s note that Jordan did come out in support of BLM in 2016).
There you have Fox’s playbook. Admit to the obvious and then dismiss it as irrelevant. Talk about America’s great (white) history — now under threat by dark (Black) actors, supported by a socialist (wrong kind of white) Fifth Column. Ignore blatant hypocrisy and falsely accuse the other side of what your side is guilty of. And flood your news stream with a torrent of dog-whistle stories crowding out any actual (inconvenient) news.