The Daily Populous Tuesday July 16th, 2024 night edition
Authored by whowhatwhy.org and submitted by plz-let-me-in

Will the response of right-wing media lead to even more chaos?

Early Saturday, I read about how Donald Trump’s supporters are already preparing to contest the outcome of the 2024 election if their candidate does not win.

A few hours later came the news bulletin of a shooting in which Trump was injured.

After watching CNN for a while, I flipped to Fox News. The difference in the coverage was striking. CNN was strictly factual — which of course meant repeating vague generalities while waiting for more facts to emerge.

Not Fox. Nor the majority of the media, now dominated by the right wing.

Quickly, Fox had a former police officer on, calling for “transparency” in any investigation, and warning Attorney General Merrick Garland, with no basis at all, not to pull any hanky-panky.

It was also full of various commentators stating, one after another, that people need to tone down the rhetoric, and that America has no place for political violence.

I was flabbergasted. The only mass political violence in America had been January 6, stoked by Trump, other Republicans, and Fox News. Most of the aggressive rhetoric in this country has come from the same crowd.

At a time when circumspection and restraint are needed the most, the choric chant that the problem rests with others — meaning the Democrats — was as galling as it was predictable.

Underlining this instant politicization were a man and a woman at the Trump rally in Butler, PA, flipping their middle fingers at CNN’s camera within seconds of the shooting.

The current frenzy is all based, it should be underlined, on the act of a single individual — a registered Republican. Somehow, this is now to be used to tar and intimidate all Americans who legitimately and thoughtfully question Trump and his motives.

And, just as predictably, one Fox talking head said that this is what happens in a country with “godlessness” — without anyone mentioning that this could not happen in a country with “gunlessness,” since Trump and his allies are thrilled that practically anyone can obtain a murder weapon and unlimited ammunition. (Some perspective on hate, violence, and guns: From 1990 to the present, according to official statistics, far-right extremists have killed more than 520 people — while far-left extremists have killed 78 people. For more data, go here, here, here.)

And, while decrying division in the country and calling for toning things down, the Fox folks continuously referred to Trump as “President Trump” or “the President,” as in “the President is fine,” yet I heard a “newsperson” referring to the actual president simply as “Biden.”

In other words, at Fox they are working to create more division and animosity, still stoking the stolen-election lie, and setting the stage for more discord and potential violence.

I doubt we will hear much candor on the irony of all this. We will see plenty of “The Photo”: the blood-streaked face of the brave, wounded, defiant victim-hero. Fox and its Republican allies will successfully milk this for all it is worth, their base will in their own minds decide that the Democrats are somehow to blame, and the major media and Democrats will have no idea how to combat this nonsense.

All this will almost certainly redound to Trump’s advantage at a time when everything is already cutting his way.

That’s where we are with less than four months until the presidential election. To tweak a Trumpian favorite: GOD HELP AMERICA.

Speederzzz on July 15th, 2024 at 13:35 UTC »

Republicans: "We are domestic terrorists!"

A republican: performs domestic terrorism

Republicans: * shocked pikachu face *

Genereatedusername on July 15th, 2024 at 11:26 UTC »

Local news media reported on a man that said "people are so intolerant now"

That man was a republican...

No followup question like: do you think republicans are tolerant?

Journalism hard

Saedeas on July 15th, 2024 at 11:17 UTC »

Republican shoots at a fellow Republican after years of Republicans encouraging political violence.

->

How could Democrats do this?

\==========================

Edit: because I'm tired of these BS replies claiming he's antifa or a Democrat.

Here's the evidence we have right now:

His donation was $15 to a progressive voter turnout group on the day of Biden's inauguration (Jan 20, 2021) when he was 17. Could have been anything, a booth, a bet lost, a misunderstanding that the group was progressive and not general get out the vote, a legit donation, who knows?

Donation

Regardless, he registered Sept 28, 2021, 8 months later, as a Republican to vote in the 2022 midterms, which he did. Note that he didn't register for the primary. It was well before that. We don't even have evidence he voted in the primary. This implies he didn't though (last vote date Nov 8, 2022).

Registration

We also have accounts of his classmates saying he was deeply conservative.

Inquirer Article

> Former student Max R. Smith remembered Crooks as an intelligent classmate with conservative political leanings. Smith recalled participating in a mock debate in a course they took together, where their teacher posed questions on government policy and had students stand on opposite sides of the classroom to signal their support or opposition.

> “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other. ... It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”

He also had a Demolition Ranch shirt on. They're not strictly political, but their audience skews heavily conservative due to the focus on 2A stuff.

It's not 100% known what his political beliefs were as he had a low social media presence (don't buy the ones you're seeing until it's confirmed, there were so many fake accounts made right after the shooting), but the current evidence points more strongly towards him being a legit Republican.

Additional aside, the dono was him. I have the actual address from the FEC dono and his voter registration and they match (lurk my profile if you want to check them). Bethel Park is a suburb of Pittsburgh and the housing address and zip are the exact same.