In the annals of modern journalism, perhaps no political analysis has aged less well than New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman’s take on the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, six of whom died. In it, the Nobel prize-winning economist took aim (pun intended) at Republicans over their singular embrace of hatred and ”growing potential for violence.” He further berated the party for its “general lack of ‘civility’.”
I wonder whether when Krugman passes a mirror he wonders who the idiot looking back at him is.
Since Krugman shared those musings (now available only in the internet’s archive), the Left has walked off with the gold, silver, and bronze in demonstrations of actual — not potential — violence and has shown itself to be among the least civil — and civilized — group on planet Earth.
Consider their reaction to reports that the president’s brother, Robert Trump, died last night. Donald Trump released a statement reading:
It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.
Upon learning the news, every Twitter wit (Twitwit, I suppose) beat a path to his keyboard in the hopes of being the first to opine “wrong Trump.”
At least the elite media acted with some measure of decorum, right? Hmm. The Washington Post apparently couldn’t resist the temptation to title its obituary “Robert Trump, younger brother of President Trump who filed lawsuit against niece, dies at 71.” As the Daily Wire notes:
Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy highlighted the difference between the headline of The Washington Post’s obituary on former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the headline for Robert Trump’s obituary. The headline that they used for al-Baghdadi appeared to be much kinder than the headline that they used for the death of Robert Trump. (RELATED: WaPo changes headline — twice — to downplay al-Baghdadi’s terrorist ties)
The New York Times was more restrained in the title of its obit, though Annie Karni, the author, threw a little red meat to Times readers by mentioning that Robert Trump was the target of Donald Trump’s fits of rage when he “needed someone to blame.”
CNN cooked up an ingenious twist for its send-off — “Joe Biden offers condolences to Donald Trump after his brother Robert Trump’s death” — while MSNBC avoided the whole sticky wicket by simply not reporting on the death of the president’s brother.
