Yesterday, amid the UC Berkeley riots that forced a lockdown and cancellation of Milo Yiannopoulos’ speaking engagement, most would judge this event news-cycle worthy. And it was for some segments of the minority alternative media. But for the dominant mainstream media, not so much.
Barely is the desecration of Yiannopoulos’ First Amendment rights or the subsequent assaults of Trump supporters mentioned anywhere in the mainstream. This ranges from completely non-existent on liberal news outlets like MSNBC to flat-out buried in the Huffington Post.
Even the non-alternative outlets covering it neglect to include the important facts.
For example, The New York Times story completely omits that Trump supporters were violently assaulted and that ATMs, pavilions, and a Starbucks were vandalized in the process. Nowhere is there mention that leftist thugs violated Milo’s First Amendment rights of free speech or freedom of assembly. This, in the former cradle of the Free Speech Movement in 1964 and 1965, UC Berkeley.
Instead, the Times chose to focus its coverage on the “controversial” history of Yiannopoulos’ views or that the lieutenant governor of California, Gavin Newsom, was “appalled” at Mr. Trump tweet threats to halt federal funding to UC Berkeley. In fact, the biggest paragraph in the story details how Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones “was among those who spoke out last month when Mr. Yiannopoulos announced he had signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster that was said to be worth $250,000.” (Source: “Berkeley Cancels Milo Speech, and Donald Trump Tweets Outrage,” The New York Times, February 1, 2017.)
The fact the mainstream press obfuscates or omits pertinent details in stories not fitting their ideological viewpoints is nothing new. It’s been happening for decades, but only recently has the bias been exposed so overtly. The Trump administration recognizes this, having declared the mainstream media “the opposition.”
By observing the lack of coverage and bias reporting of this important event, we can see why.