Capitol Hill Killer: Media Double Standard

So a crazed white nationalist fanatic professing allegiance to a notorious hate group rammed a car into a security fence on Capitol Hill, killing a black police officer and injuring another after proclaiming on social media: “The U.S. Government is the #1 enemy of white people.” And what did the media do? They yawned. Reporting the basic facts of the case, along with a short profile or two of the killer, was the limit of its interest. No in-depth exploration of his “ties” or his “radicalization” or a broad inquiry into his hateful ideology was deemed necessary. No one explored the hate group’s links to celebrities, a current senator, and even a recent president.

The above scenario did not, of course, occur. And nor could it conceivably have occurred. A white-nationalist attack on the seat of our democracy getting memory-holed after a couple of days of perfunctory coverage? Not within the realm of possibility. If this had happened, it would have been one of the biggest stories of the year. There would have been hundreds of columns written about it. There would have been long panel discussions on CNN. There would be dozens of follow-up pieces and news analyses running on the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. There would have been a National Conversation on this insidious issue.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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So a crazed white nationalist fanatic professing allegiance to a notorious hate group rammed a car into a security fence on Capitol Hill, killing a black police officer and injuring another after proclaiming on social media: “The U.S. Government is the #1 enemy of white people.” And what did the media do? They yawned. Reporting the basic facts of the case, along with a short profile or two of the killer, was the limit of its interest. No in-depth exploration of his “ties” or his “radicalization” or a broad inquiry into his hateful ideology was deemed necessary. No one explored the hate group’s links to celebrities, a current senator, and even a recent president.

The above scenario did not, of course, occur. And nor could it conceivably have occurred. A white-nationalist attack on the seat of our democracy getting memory-holed after a couple of days of perfunctory coverage? Not within the realm of possibility. If this had happened, it would have been one of the biggest stories of the year. There would have been hundreds of columns written about it. There would have been long panel discussions on CNN. There would be dozens of follow-up pieces and news analyses running on the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. There would have been a National Conversation on this insidious issue.