There were two incidents in Washington , D.C. this past week involving major media figures. They are both interesting in their own right but one has the media party outraged while the other barely gets noticed.
Jim Acosta of CNN got into a spat with President Donald Trump, there was an incident involving a microphone and Acosta’s press pass was pulled. This story has generated so many headlines, so many discussions.
I get why it has.
What I am wondering is why a mob showing up at the home of another major media figure and threatening him isn’t generating the same kind of headlines?
Could it be because the other figure is Tucker Carlson from Fox News?
Probably.
Carlson might be the second most watched host on cable news on the most watched channel but Acosta is on CNN, little watched but a darling of the establishment media.
Both stories deserve coverage, but how much have you heard about Carlson compared to Acosta?
If you only watch Fox News then you have heard plenty on both. If you get your news elsewhere then it is incredibly lopsided in terms of Acosta.
But let’s compare.
Acosta isn’t the first reporter to get into a spat with a president nor the first to have their press pass revoked.
A spat vs threats to your life.
While newsworthy, it isn’t as threatening as a mob showing up at your house and threatening your family. An Antifa mob appeared outside Carlson’s home while he wasn’t there but his family was, to deliver a chilling message
“Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!” the Antifa mob chanted.
Some in the group even tried to get in through the front door.
Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” was not home at the time. He said his wife, Susie, was home alone and heard the commotion from the kitchen. She called the police and locked herself into a pantry, he said. His brother — who lives close by — arrived about the same time as law enforcement.
The host said activists rang his doorbell, broke his oak door and one protester was apparently caught on security video mentioning a pipe bomb.
How would you feel with people threatening you where you sleep, where your wife and children sleep over your opinions, what you say on the air?
No one should have to deal with that.
There have been some stories, some editorials, even Stephen Colbert speaking out against it but not the non-stop outrage headlines that we see over the Trump-Acosta spat.
Carlson, already on a previously planned vacation, responded by calling into Fox News to say while he isn’t intimidated, he has to think of his wife and four children.
Too often the violent thugs behind the threats to Carlson or the violence that has gripped our cities when democratically elected leaders meet are given a pass. They are, as Carlson pointed out, simply referred to as protesters when in fact they are thugs.
Violence in the name of politics is wrong from any side. We are given warnings about the alt-right while the radical left gets a pass.
No more.
A pox on all their houses.
If you live in a free society, like America or Canada, and use violence to achieve your political goals then you aren’t welcome.
Let’s hope Carlson sees that these thugs are charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.