Why Aren't the Media Polling and Reporting in-Depth on the Riots?
Up until a few weeks ago, late June or early July, media constantly polled Americans’ attitudes toward the ongoing street protests over the death of George Floyd.
Those polls consistently found that Americans generally supported the protests. But if you Google “poll Americans reactions to city violence” you’ll see something interesting.
The media appears to have stopped polling about the protests/riots. Here’s a snapshot. Look at the dates — nothing recent.
Google search for stories on ongoing riots and polls about them. July 24, 2020.
Slightly different wording, “poll americans opinion city protests,” yields similar results.
Note those last two stories. The media was polling what Americans thought should be done about the riots, and while comparing the results of one poll versus another can be dicey — different sample sizes, methodologies, and so forth — a majority of Americans wanted the violence stopped. They favored deploying the military to do it, in keeping with the Constitution’s call to “insure domestic tranquility,” and the number who wanted that to happen was likely increasing.
The NYT even published Sen. Tom Cotton’s op-ed suggesting the military option, which had majority support at the time, only to face a revolt in its newsroom that led to a bloodbath on its editorial staff. That op-ed ran on June 3. The NYT lost touch with reality on this issue soon thereafter.
Sometime in late June or early July the polling on the riots and what to do about them appears to have stopped. Or, at least, the reporting on the polling stopped. Insert the thinking emoji here. Why would media stop polling on an ongoing issue that is affecting the entire national mood and discourse, the function of some of our largest cities, how we see and depict our history, and, by the way, the upcoming presidential election?
What if the media didn’t stop polling about this? They just stopped reporting on their polls.
Now, why would they do that? Insert that thinking emoji again.
I did find one recent poll reported in The Hill, and it has bad news for those who want to defund the police. Most Americans oppose that, as they consistently have from the start of all this. That poll hasn’t exactly been trumpeted by anyone. It doesn’t ask the broad question of what Americans think about the violence, or what should be done about it.
In the beginning of all this recent unpleasantness, Americans were horrified at the video of George Floyd’s death and broadly supported reforms so that no one else would suffer a similar fate at the hands of police. Several helpful suggestions came forth, from banning chokeholds to curbing or doing away with unions that protect bad police officers.
So do those things, fix the problem, and move on. Right?
Apparently none of those reasonable suggestions, or any other reasonable suggestions, were enough to stop rioters, though Americans still broadly support them, according to Gallup.
As we all know, the peaceful protests gave way quickly to violence as antifa and others opportunistically hijacked the issue. Since then, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and other cities have suffered ongoing violence. Just look at the Seattle PD blotter from Wednesday night. This is not by any definition a protest. It’s a crime spree. (h/t Hot Air)
At about 9:00 p.m. a group of about 150 people gathered at Cal Anderson park. The group roamed about the Capital Hill neighborhood, doing massive amounts of property damage, looting, shooting fireworks, and committing arson.Individuals from the group broke the windows of a business in the 1400 block of East Olive Way and then started a fire inside. Seattle Fire was called to extinguish the fire.The group then went to the 1500 Block of 11 Avenue, breaking more businesses’ windows along the way. Individuals then broke into a business, took merchandise, and put it in middle of the street where they lit it on fire.The group went to Broadway and Madison, where individuals used baseball bats and pipes to break windows at a store. They threw fireworks into the store and then began looting.The group headed to the area of Summit and Madison where they damaged property at two banks.After leaving the banks, the group returned to Cal Anderson Park and then dispersed.No arrests were made. No officers were injured.
Take a good, hard look at that. It’s coming to a city near you if it’s not addressed soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment