'They're Basically a Collection of Liars': AG Barr Calls Out Mainstream Media Over Riot Coverage
Attorney General William Barr called out the mainstream media on Friday as "a collection of liars and they know exactly what they're doing" in regards to coverage of the riots in Seattle, Portland, and Kenosha.
In an exclusive interview with Townhall.com, while returning to Washington following a three-day tour of Chicago, Phoenix, and Cleveland, Barr said the media was lying to the American people for partisan reasons.
"Right on the street it was clear as day what was going on, anyone observing it, reporters observing it, it could not have escaped their attention that this was orchestrated violence by a hardened group of street fighting radicals and they kept on excluding from their coverage all the video of this and reporting otherwise and they were doing that for partisan reasons, and they were lying to the American people. It wasn't until they were caught red-handed after essentially weeks of this lie that they even started feeling less timid," Barr said
"The press has dropped, in my view – and I'm talking about the national mainstream media – has dropped any pretense of professional objectivity and are political actors, highly partisan who try to shape what they're reporting to achieve a political purpose and support a political narrative that has nothing to do with the truth. They're very mendacious about it," the attorney general continued. "It's very destructive to our Republic; it's very destructive to the Democratic system to have that, especially being so monolithic. It's contributing to a lot of the intensity and partisanship."
Since George Floyd's death last May and the resulting protests that turned into riots, the major television networks have gone out of their way to portray the riots as "peaceful protests," according to Townhall. The most ironic image was broadcast by CNN. While a reporter stood in front of a burning Kenosha business to give a live report, the network posted a graphic reading "Fiery but mostly peaceful protest," to describe the riot that night.
CNN tells us this is "A Firey buy Mostly Peaceful Protest..." while showing images of Kenosha, WI engulfed in flames, rioting mobs and exploding fireworks. Why do you think CNN is trying to normalize these arsonist? https://t.co/g46XLAICat
— J. White (@JamesW18123391) August 27, 2020
Barr told Townhall he believes the majority of the national media is not really interested in what really happened when reporting a story. They're interested "in pursuing a preformed narrative that suits some kind of ideological agenda. That's what it's all become," he said.
The attorney general also said the organization behind the rioting in cities across the country is under investigation.
"People are pouring through all of the video trying to identify people to hold people accountable," Barr said, adding that the funding of the riots is also under investigation. "I think Antifa and Antifa-like groups are at the center of it."
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Meanwhile, the mainstream news media is promoting fears of a coup after the 2020 election.
"Is Trump Planning a Coup d'État?" asks another recent piece at The Nation. "Is America in the Early Stages of Armed Insurgency?" frets Slate. Similar pieces have run at the Washington Post ("The election will likely spark violence—and a constitutional crisis"), The Atlantic ("What might he do? What should Americans fear?"), Vox ("Imagine that… Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat"), The New Yorker ("Trump's threats about rejecting the results come November are not idle"), and on and on.
J.B. Shirk, in an op-ed for The Federalist.com, says the message that Democrats are ultimately trying to push is even before voting has begun, the 2020 presidential election is illegitimate.
"Why are Democrats working to undermine the election, rather than working to win it?" he writes. "On the chance that President Donald Trump is re-elected, they are attempting to veto the vote and bring about revolution in America.
This is why Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer pretend Trump won't leave office if defeated. It's why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to insist the president is Vladimir Putin's "accomplice." It's why the mayor of San Francisco so casually calls the president a "terrorist" and "dictator." It's why Democrat vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is already blaming Joe Biden's loss on "Russian interference," Shirk continued.
