As if on cue and reading from the same script, senior Obama administration officials and the increasingly discredited establishment press rushed to paint a deeply deceptive caricature of the alleged Las Vegas cop-killers. By selectively picking what to report in an outlandishly biased manner, a deranged couple described by neighbors as methamphetamine-abusing white supremacists became — at least in the mischaracterized “mainstream” media — everyday Americans suspicious about government run-amok. According to polls, over two thirds of U.S. voters say the federal government is “out of control” and a threat to basic liberties.
Like with tragedies of all varieties, the establishment almost reflexively began searching obsessively for unalienable rights to attack: gun rights, free speech, freedom of association, and more. Also, as has become typical, the media promptly began trying to distort and pigeonhole the supposed “ideology” of the murderers in an effort to demonize ideological foes, as if the “ideology” of lone lunatics was important. The victims, meanwhile — two police officers and an armed Good Samaritan at Walmart — have been largely ignored except as props to advance the dangerous agenda being pushed by the press and the Obama administration.
The first two victims, both police officers in Las Vegas, were 41-year-old Alyn Beck and 31-year-old Igor Soldo. They were executed at point-blank range at a pizza restaurant. Beck, a senior patrol officer who joined the department in 2001, was survived by a wife and three children. He was described by friends as tender, gentle, funny, fearless, a good cop, and an intellectual. The other officer, Soldo, leaves behind a wife and a baby. He joined the department in 2006 and was described by family as a loving father and a “great guy.” Fellow law enforcement officials and the community mourned their loss.
The other victim, who was carrying a concealed firearm and tried to stop the male suspect in Walmart, was identified by authorities as 31-year-old Joseph Wilcox of Las Vegas. Based on police accounts, it appears that Wilcox did not realize the couple was working together. He was shot dead by the female suspect after confronting her husband. “Joseph died trying to protect others,” Sheriff Doug Gillespie said of the Good Samaritan. A police official quoted in local media reports also praised Wilcox. “To me, he was a hero,” the officer said. “He was trying to stop an active shooter.” Unsurprisingly, as The New American reported, Wilcox was virtually ignored by the press — almost certainly because his heroism does not fit with the agenda.
In most of the press, the focus was not on the hero or the innocent victims, but on the supposed “ideology” of the deranged murderers — identified by police as Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller. Special vitriol was reserved for critics of the Obama administration. The Tea Party, for example, was demonized due to its occasional use of the U.S. War for Independence-era Gadsden flag reportedly used to cover up the bodies of the murdered police officers. A National Socialist (Nazi) swastika was also left at the crime scene. Law enforcement is still investigating what it all might mean, if anything.
Radio titan Alex Jones and his Infowars media empire, meanwhile, were hysterically attacked by the establishment press because one of the suspects had left some comments at the website and shared some of the articles. Jones, who recently warned listeners to expect a false-flag operation, said after the tragedy in Las Vegas that he suspected the latest rampage had been staged. That prompted the White House-linked, Soros-funded propaganda outfit Media Matters to ramp up the anti-Jones hysteria even further. The attack-dog group also slammed the wildly popular and influential Drudge Report — a favorite target of far-left ideologues — by extension. Jones has one of the top 10 radio programs in America and his websites get far more traffic than even many national establishment media outlets.
Based on the “likes” of one of the suspects on Facebook, numerous mainstream organizations ranging from the Heritage Foundation to the Washington Examiner were also demonized by far-left media outlets such as MSNBC and Mother Jones. Even political figures like former Congressman Allen West and others associated with elements of the conservative movement were cited as possible sources of inspiration for the alleged white-supremacist murderers — despite the fact that West is black. Some of the most outlandish media commentators even pointed to Obama’s skin color as a possible motivation for the killings.
Finally, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters nationwide were cited by the establishment media because the suspects reportedly visited the property amid a showdown with the Bureau of Land Management. The two murder suspects were promptly asked to leave the ranch, according to the suspects themselves, their neighbors, and members of the Bundy family — a fact that much of the establishment press conveniently omitted in their reports. Also carefully concealed from consumers of what critics say is establishment-media “propaganda” was the presence of numerous law enforcement officers, sheriffs, and lawmakers from across the West at the Bundy ranch in support of the embattled ranchers.
It was not just the media seeking to whip up hysteria and paranoia about everyday Americans and their constitutionally protected rights. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, currently under fire for alleged corruption and bizarre ramblings against private citizens, wasted no time in calling for more gun control after the tragedy. “The American people are depending on us to pass legislation to prevent gun violence,” Reid claimed, ignoring the fact that dozens of existing gun-control schemes were violated by the suspects — not to mention far more serious laws against murder. Obama’s Interior Secretary Sally Jewell also tried to link the alleged murderers to the Bundy ranch.
One of the big problems with the media and administration narrative so far, though — again, as with most tragedies — is that the facts do not fit the agenda. Even if they did, of course, the supposed “ideology” of the deranged killers would be as relevant as their fanatical obsession with heavy metal music. However, in the now-typical rush to demonize political opponents, the establishment press has had a field day, citing the shooters’ alleged shouting about their “revolution” during the rampage.
Law enforcement officials, who were mourning their slain colleagues, tried to keep the calm. “We believe this is an isolated act,” explained Assistant Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill in a press conference about the tragedy. “There is no doubt that the suspects have some apparent ideology that’s along the lines of militia and white supremacists.” He also said the alleged killers had “anti-police ideology.” Apparently the suspects were under the misguided impression that police are the “oppressors,” officials said. Local law enforcement spokesmen said they were still searching for a motive, even though the media seem to think they have already uncovered it. Officials also said they found white-supremacist paraphernalia.
Neighbors who knew the suspects and social-media posts attributed to the alleged killers revealed bizarre views and behavior as well. “They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine,” a 22-year-old neighbor told the Las Vegas Sun. According to the neighbor, the male suspect sometimes dressed up as Peter Pan. He also described the couple as “weird people” who probably used methamphetamines, sometimes called crystal meth — a drug known for contributing to strange, paranoid, aggressive, and sometimes delusional behavior. Another neighbor also said the couple often talked about murdering police.
On Facebook, the female suspect, who reportedly did most of the shooting before eventually killing her husband and then herself, also posted strange rantings on the Internet. “[T]o the people of the world… your [sic] lucky i can’t kill you now but remember one day one day i will get you because one day all hell will break lose [sic] and i’ll be standing in the middle of it with a shot gun in one hand and a pistol in the other,” she allegedly wrote on May 23. Analysts noted that such rhetoric, despite the media narrative, sounds nothing like the words of a Tea Partier concerned about Big Government and its violations of the Constitution.
The male suspect was a convicted felon in Washington State for stealing cars, thereby becoming legally prohibited from owning a firearm. Apparently the alleged murderer was not concerned about gun laws, which are generally only adhered to by law-abiding citizens. According to news reports, the male suspect also had a criminal record in Indiana, as well as a long history of problems with drugs and domestic violence. Also left out of most media reports was the fact that the suspects allegedly seized weapons from the police officers they murdered, and the fact that the rampage only ended after they were confronted with armed force at Walmart.
Of course, when mass-murderers express obsessive pro-government views — National Socialists (Nazis), Communists, international socialists, and other adherents to “ideologies” that have murdered well over 100 million people in the last century — the press actively tries to cover it up. The New York Times, for example, became infamous for its half-baked efforts to conceal the Soviet communist genocide of Ukrainians from the world. Its headline for an article about the recent tragedy, though, reads: “Antigovernment Obsession Preceded Las Vegas Shootings.”
When ex-Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer Christopher Dorner hunted down and murdered his former colleagues over alleged corruption, the media was virtually silent about his rabidly pro-Obama “manifesto,” his demands for more gun control, as well as his praise for Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and media figures like CNN’s Anderson Cooper and extreme anti-Second Amendment zealot Piers Morgan. Headlines declaring “Pro-Government, Pro-Obama, Pro-Gun Control Obsession Preceded Cop-Killer’s LA Rampage” were nowhere to be found. Neither were radical pro-government media personalities blamed.
The pattern of deeply biased and deceptive reporting was also manifested recently after another recent shooting. When a deranged homosexual activist and fringe Southern Poverty Law Center apparatchik shot up a conservative-leaning non-profit’s headquarters, the media were mostly missing in action. No establishment media headlines trumpeted that “Pro-government and Pro-Homosexual Obsession Preceded D.C. Shootings,” or anything remotely similar.
After those shootings, The New American reported: “Of course, the individual shooter was solely responsible for his actions — nobody else, including the leadership of the SPLC … can be legitimately blamed for the attack.” The same is true in this case and all other, similar tragedies. Some analysts, though, say the establishment media’s obsession with the supposed “ideology” of deranged killers — at least when it suits their agenda — may contribute to creating copy-cat murders.
About one in five Americans trusts the establishment media, according to recent polls. Even that much support, though, is almost surprising considering how brazen the deception and agenda-driven “journalism” has become. On the other hand, some 68 percent of Americans say the federal government is “out of control” and a danger to their fundamental freedoms — making such views about as mainstream as they can be. From reading the misnamed “mainstream” media and its regurgitation of Obama administration press releases, the one in five people who still trust the press might be forgiven for thinking that almost seven in 10 Americans may be on the verge of going berserk. In the real world, though, the chances of that happening are probably as close to zero as it gets.
Photo: AP Images
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU.
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