I’m not feeling well this week, so please excuse me if my thoughts are a jumbled mess. Even if I were fine, I doubt I’d be able to articulate the awfulness of this Politico article fully.
It took me forever to create a headline because the one I wanted to use was not family-friendly.
Ankush Khardori of Politico once again shows us why we hate the media so much. It’s another piece of proof of why no one trusts the media.
Khardori received a four-page letter from Ryan Routh, the man accused of trying to murder then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in September.
Somehow, Khardori concluded that Routh’s letter did not tell us “what may have driven an agitated mind to attempt a heinous act.”
Except…except it did. Khardori could make that conclusion in his piece because he buried the lede: Routh spouted out the usual Democrat rhetoric toward Trump.
I’m furious.
Let’s dig deeper, shall we?
I came across Max Abrahms’ post on X:
I usually raise an eyebrow when someone posts only a screenshot of an article, but Abrahms is a good guy, so I figured there had to be a reason.
Yup:
Khardori buried the lede.
Instead, Khardori began the story by stressing Routh’s hatred towards every political party. I guess he felt he had to drill this into everyone’s head to desensitize people to Routh’s upcoming comments about Trump.
Constantly reassuring your readers that Routh didn’t like anyone and didn’t name VP Kamala Harris. You can read it for yourself because that is NOT important.
This is the important part (emphasis mine):
To be sure, Routh is a vigorous Trump opponent. He wrote his letter before the election and urged the country, in the event of a Trump victory, “to remove the power of our military by the President and place it with Congress before January.” “We must limit all Presidential power before Trump seizes our country,” he wrote. He referred to Trump at one point as a “dictator.” (Last year, Trump said he would not be a dictator if reelected “except for day one.”)In the event that Trump lost, Routh called on Americans “to encircle the capitol” in order to prevent another siege of the U.S. Capitol akin to the one that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. At multiple points, he contemplated the prospect of another “civil war.” (For the record, this is not a good idea, to put it as mildly as possible.)Routh referred to himself multiple times as the “Trump Alleged Shooter,” perhaps to avoid an explicit confession, but at one point, he linked himself directly to Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was the first person who tried to assassinate Trump this year, during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks was killed on sight by a Secret Service sniper; Routh has been charged with the attempted assassination of Trump but has pleaded not guilty. Routh described them both, however, as being “ready to die for freedom and democracy.”The letter continued with a short section urging people to vote against Trump and criticized him for having “destroyed the MidEast.” Routh took specific issue with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal — name-checking the “JCPOA” — and blamed Trump “for all those lives lost and all the destruction” in the region since.
Khardori’s takeaway from the letter? This nonsense:
In the end, we can’t know what may have driven an agitated mind to attempt a heinous act. You don’t have to believe Routh based on what he put in his letter. He’s not exactly a reliable narrator. But you also don’t have to take the word of partisan politicians. The only thing for certain in this polarized climate is that the debate isn’t going away.
Guys, you cannot hate the media enough.
Khardori didn’t attach the letter. I guess I can understand why but I would love to read the whole thing.
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