Attorney General William Barr said Sunday that much of the national media referring to rioters on American streets as “peaceful demonstrators” is a “lie.”
“Anyone with eyes can see what’s happening,” Barr told Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin.” “They see the violence, they see these groups of agitators in their black outfits, with their helmets and their shields which incidentally have a hammer and sickle on them most of the time, rushing the police, causing violence, throwing rocks — people showing up with the rocks and the frozen bottles.”
He noted that he has been “appalled” by the ongoing violence that continues to occur on the streets of urban America. (RELATED: Barr: There Is No ‘Epidemic’ Of Police ‘Shooting Unarmed Black Men’)
Barr noted that the violence is no secret and is “happening in front of people” yet it doesn’t appear “on any of the national news or the networks or other cable stations” that prefer to talk about peaceful protests.
“It’s a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media.”
Federal officers deploy tear gas and less-lethal munitions while dispersing a crowd of about a thousand protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Thursday, July 24, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Barr said disparity is a resolution of the the media presenting “a narrative” instead of “objective truth.” “There’s no real story of what happened. It’s just everyone has their own narrative and you get to where the press can justify presenting a story that doesn’t really correspond to objective truth — but it’s our narrative. (Attorney General William Barr Skewers ‘Remarkably Monolithic’ Press)
When asked if the media can be trusted to tell the truth, the attorney general suggested, “It’s reliable for being partisan nowadays.” Barr note that First Amendment free speech was originally designed to apply to all American citizens, who had the freedom to publish pamphlets and speak their minds but that the media has become largely “monolithic” today.
CNN analyst Van Jones recently faulted the Democratic Party for ignoring the “economic devastation” created by the riots across America.
An August Gallup poll revealed that Americans across racial lines are overwhelmingly opposed to violent protests though supportive of peaceful ones. Another recent poll indicated that 77% of Americans are “concerned” about the spike in violent crime in American cities.