-By Warner Todd Huston
The Old Media and the liberal left’s reaction to the terror attacks in Paris last night really do prove that in and of itself leftists occupy just another niche of enemies to modernity and western civilization.
Certainly leftists are not themselves terrorists–though this is quite unlike the charge leftists make against anyone who is center right. But their ideas, ideals, and their reaction to Islamist terrorism makes of leftists haters of the west with a hate just as deep, just as white hot as any ISIS murderer’s hatred.
This we can see in the left’s reaction to what happened in Paris on November 13, 2015.
As a writer for Breitbart News one of my charges has always been to keep an eye on the outrageous nonsense that goes on in the left-wing media both in the U.S. and Eurdope, and in my piece today I trace several of the key reactions to the Paris attacks that reveals the media’s hatred for our own.
But the tone was set to absolve Islam by the president himself who reused to say Islam or Muslim in his short address to the nation on Friday evening (see a transcript of his comments at the end of this article).
In any case, the media worked hard to absolve Muslims and Islam only to blame conservatives and the west for the attacks.
Before the dust had settled and before even the extent of the damage and number of dead had been tallied from a string of terror attacks in Paris, France, liberals in the old media establishment were already writing pieces blaming conservatives, bemoaning that the attacks had taken the focus off pet liberal issues like Mizzou and global warming, and wringing hands for the safety of Muslims.
To name just a few of these liberals handwringing and blaming everything except Islam, Salon.com was early out of the gate with a story twisting the terror attacks into a weapon to use against conservatives.
Even as Islamist terrorists were still killing people across Paris, Salon rushed to Twitter to essentially blame the terror attacks on conservative rhetoric saying, “Real terror unfolds in Paris. Perhaps this will convince the right to done down their incessant violent rhetoric.” (Note, they meant “tone down” not “done down”)
The story the Tweet links to goes on to attack conservatives for using “violent” rhetoric and for causing a harsh political climate in the USA. So, to Salon, real, concrete terrorists actually killing over a hundred people and terrorizing thousands isn’t as bad as Republicans using “violent rhetoric” in a political discussion.
That wasn’t the only Salon story to misappropriate blame. In yet another Salon story westerners are urged to “stop blaming Muslims and take a hard look at ourselves” to pinpoint who is at fault for the terror attacks.
But that is just one case of a left-wing site using the attacks in Paris as a weapon to beat up conservatives or western values. Many other media personalities and outlets followed that liberal line.
During his time on the air as the attacks were still ongoing, MSNBC’s disgraced anchor Brian Williams proved to be more worried that the terror attacks would overshadow the world’s attention to global warming than he was in the victims of the attacks. Williams was speaking to Weather Channel Managing Editor Sam Champion who was in Paris to attend Al Gore’s big climate change summit that had to be canceled because the terror attacks interrupted the event. And at one point during the interview Williams asked “What becomes of what you had hoped to be this big public campaign leading up the climate summit?”
Clearly Williams felt heartbroken that the attacks would stifle the “big public campaign” pushing global warming.
Ironically, as people were being murdered throughout Paris, Al Gore has proclaimed that global warming is the biggest threat we face.
Not to be outdone for inappropriate use of the terror attacks for their own personal cause, the rabid, anti-Second Amendment group Moms Demand Action jumped to its Twitter account to send condolences to victims of ‘gun violence’ in Paris. See, it wasn’t Islamic terrorists that caused the terror attacks. It was “guns.”
This “Moms” group isn’t alone in using the terror attack to push an anti-Constitution message. B actor Ian Michael Black, who has starred in a series of not well known TV sitcoms and sketch comedy shows, also jumped to Twitter to ladle his gun control message on top of the news in Paris.
Next, as Breitbart’s John Nolte reported, CNN also used the terror attacks to push a gun control message here in the U.S. even as the attacks were still raging in the City Of Lights.
American liberals aren’t alone in abusing the attacks to suit their own liberal agenda. Left-wing Guardian columnist Natalie Nougayrède also published a piece while the bodies in Paris were still warm saying that the “far-right groups” are the real problem and wringing her hands that Muslims would “face trauma” at the hands of nativists as a result of the attacks.
Instead of decrying the extremism and violence of Islam, Nougayrède attacked “far-right groups” that would “fuel more hatred” against Muslims living in France.
Canada had its own share of liberals using the Paris attacks for his own pet issue. Doug Saunders, the international-affairs columnist for the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, also jumped to Twitter to attack Christians who were urging people to pray for the victims in France.
On Friday Saunders wrote, “‘Pray for Paris’ seems a cruel slogan to direct at a country whose very existence is a mass secular revolt against religious authority.”
So, even as Islamists used their own religion as a reason to kill, Saunders used the attacks as a means to attack Christians.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S. liberals were upset that the Paris terror attacks had taken their pet story of the so-called “racism” at the University of Missouri off the front pages.
For his part, race hustler and Fergusson activist Deray McKesson equated the Paris attacks to the University of Missouri, as well. He also lumped in the death of Sandra Bland in with the terror attacks in Paris as if the ISIS attacks were just like Mizzou, Ferguson, and Sandra Bland’s death.
And even as terrorists were sneaking into Paris under the cover of being “refugees” to plan and carry out attacks that would kill over 100 people, President Obama was declaring that ISIS was “contained” and has been racing to expand the “refugee” program here in the U.S. setting up America for its own future Paris attacks. It is a program that both Drudge and Texas Senator Ted Cruz attacked on Friday night.
Speaking of taking in refugees, left-wing Rolling Stone quickly pushed out a piece on Saturday demanding that the U.S. take in more “refugees” from war-torn Middle Eastern nations, especially ISIS infested Syria.
In the end, even before the final number of Parisians murdered by Islamic terrorists was known, liberals were rushing to blame conservatives, excuse Islam, and worrying for the safety of Muslims while bemoaning that the focus had been taken off their pet issues of claims of “racism” at the University of Missouri, global warming, and their anti-gun agenda.
Here is Obama’s full address from Friday night.
I just want to make a few brief comments about the attacks across Paris tonight.
Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. This is an attack not just on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.
We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of France need to respond.
France is our oldest ally. The French people has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States time and again. And we want to be very clear that we stand with them in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
Paris itself represents the timeless values of human progress. Those that think they can terrorize the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong.
The American people draw strength from the French people’s commitment to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. We are reminded in this time of tragedy that the bonds of liberté, egalité, and fraternité are not only values that the French people care so deeply about but they are values we share. And those values are going to endure far beyond any act of terrorism or the hateful vision of those who perpetrated the crimes this evening.
We’re going to do whatever it takes to work with the French people and with nations around the world to bring these terrorists to justice and to go after any terrorist networks that go after our people.
We don’t yet know all of the details of what is happened, we have been in contact with French officials to communicate our deepest condolences to the families of those who have been killed. To offer our prayers and thoughts to those who’ve been wounded. We have offered our full support to them. The situation is still unfolding. I’ve chosen not to call President Hollande at this time because my expectation is that he’s very busy at the moment.
I actually by coincidence was talking to him earlier today in preparation for the G20 meeting. But I am confident that I’ll be in direct communication with him in the next few days and we’ll be coordinating in any ways that they think are helpful in the investigation of what’s happened.
This is a heartbreaking situation and obviously those of us here in the United States know what it’s like, we’ve gone through these kinds of episodes ourselves. And whenever these kinds of attacks happened we’ve always been able to count on the French people to stand with us. They have been an extraordinary counterterrorism partner and we intend to be there with them in that same fashion.
I’m sure that in the days ahead we’ll learn more about exactly what happened and my teams will make sure that we are in communication with the press to provide you accurate information. I don’t want to speculate at this point in terms of who is responsible for this. It appears that there may still be live activity and dangers that are taking place as we speak. And so until we know from French officials that the situation is under control and we have more information about it I don’t want to speculate.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Wizbang.com, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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