Our deceptive government and its lickspittle press
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You wouldn’t know it from the government’s mouthpieces, national and local, but it was the transvestite crowd making those threats, not the opposition.
But surprisingly, the usually liberal The Hill does let the light shine out.
Don’t hide the truth about who made violent threats against Target
Omitting or burying crucial context is one of the many ways in which newsrooms can, either intentionally or subconsciously, obscure the truth and mislead audiences.
And when it’s intentional, we may call it what it is. After all, a lie of omission is still a lie.
And as far as lies of omission are concerned, certain newsrooms are guilty of it last week following a spate of bomb threats leveled against Target stores. The threats were made by individuals who claim they’re upset about the retailer’s decision to remove certain pride-month related merchandise, not its decision to sell that merchandise. But you’d hardly know this from a casual glance at the news.
“Target stores see more bomb threats over Pride merchandise,” the Washington Post reported this week. The subhead adds, “Locations in at least five states were evacuated this weekend, and no explosives were discovered.”
And this is how the story’s opening paragraph reads, “Target stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after receiving bomb threats. Though no explosives were discovered, the incidents tie into the backlash over the retail chain’s Pride Month merchandise.”
You may be shocked to learn that it was the self-declared allies of the pride movement, not its conservative adversaries, who made the bomb threats, according to both local media and law enforcement officials. Yes, the threats allegedly came from people claiming to be upset about the removal of pride-themed merchandise, not from belligerent conservatives upset about the merchandise itself.
One of these bomb threats, widely distributed throughout the New England area, accused Target of “[betraying] the LGBTQ+ community.” Another note, this time in Louisiana, accused the retailer’s executives of being “pathetic cowards who bowed to the wishes of far-right extremists who want to exterminate us.”
“We will not tolerate intolerance nor indifference,” the note says. “If you are not with us then you are against us.”
Would you, based on the Washington Post’s front-and-center framing of the story, infer that the bomb threats allegedly came from allies of the pride movement? Probably not, and that’s almost certainly by design. It’s hard to imagine that the Washington Post, with all of its resources and institutional knowledge, simply forgot to include the “who” in the “who, what, where, when, and why” of its opening coverage.
As for the “who” of the story, the Post didn’t even get around to mentioning the alleged culprits until the eighth paragraph. Seven entire paragraphs before the paper figured it was worth mentioning who supposedly made the bomb threats.
That’s not just a buried lede. That’s a lede so deep in the earth that the Devil never found out it was dead.
Elsewhere, HuffPo went with the headline, “Target Stores In Multiple States Receive Bomb Threats Over Pride Month Merch.” Its subhead reads, “The bomb threats came amid a sweeping anti-LGBTQ campaign targeting corporations and employees promoting inclusive messaging.”
Amazingly, the lede reads, “Target stores in at least five states were evacuated over the weekend after receiving bomb threats in what appears to be a continuation of backlash against the retail chain’s Pride Month merchandise.”
It’s an entire six paragraphs before the story mentions who the alleged perpetrators are.
There’s a very simple fix to all of this: the word “removal.” These headlines could have made the matter clear simply by reporting that the bomb threats were allegedly made as a response to the “removal” of pride merchandise.
