Media Research Center executive Tim Graham peddled the expected right-wing take on Charlie Kirk’s death in his Sept. 12 column:
The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah looked like the opposite of the Washington Post motto. It’s “Democracy Dies In Sunlight.” Thousands of people gathered joyfully to hear freedom of speech, and saw it end with a bullet to the neck.
The dominant media reaction was horror, as it should be. When the Biden-boosting media can mourn a powerful MAGA voice, sounding the theme that civility should be embraced and not condemned, that instinct should be applauded.
It shouldn’t be a difficult political stand to oppose assassinations and other political violence. It shouldn’t be tough to oppose rioting and looting as a form of protest. These should be the firm consensus of any democratic system.
Graham’s calls for civility are painfully ironic given that his employer is best known for less-than-civil things like defending Rush Limbaugh after his vile sexual slurs of Sandra Fluke, calling President Obama a “skinny ghetto crackhead,” attacking Oliver Darcy as a “Benedict Arnold” for the sin of escaping the right-wing bubble and going Godwin on website monitors by smearing them as “digital brownshirts.” Yet Graham insisted that non-right-wingers were the ironic ones:
The irony never ends, that the champions of “democracy” cannot stand anyone taking a pro-Trump point of view on campus. An opposing viewpoint should not “even be allowed.”
These are the same people who insisted Kirk was a villain because he “divided” people – as if it’s not divisive to support Hamas, or unlimited abortions, or gender-mutilating surgeries for children. Apparently, conservatives are “divisive” because they divide themselves away from the proper position.
As if the MRC and the rest of the right-wing media has never attacked non-conservatives as “divisive” for not following the “proper” (to them) position. Indeed, the MRC continued to push its agenda that Kirk cannot be criticized, and that guns cannot be blamed, throughout Sept. 12:
- Lemon, Fanone Blame White Men for Political Violence after Kirk Death
- ‘Respectful Exchange of Ideas’; Comcast Execs Call Out MSNBC, NBC Over Kirk Coverage
- Late Night Comedians Condemn Kirk Assassination, Some Push Gun Control
- Charlie Kirk’s Murder Cheered Online by Liberal Teachers Across U.S.
- CNN’s Audie Cornish Won’t Say Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Murder Merits Criticism
- Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Chronicled in PragerU Tribute
- Left Cancels Ezra Klein for Claiming ‘Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way’
Meanwhile, Jorge Bonilla grumbled:
The investigation into the senseless assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk continues apace. However, the legacy media continue to obfuscate critical details in order to avoid an uncomfortable truth that has been relevant to other recent shootings.
Watch as national correspondent Mat Gutman describes the scrawlings found on ammunition belonging to shooter in the most opaquely anodyne manner:
[…]Words. And symbols. A reasonable individual may inquire as to what these vague words represent. What are these symbols symbols of? What do these words say, and what meaning do they intend to convey? Per The New York Post:
A rifle recovered in the hunt for conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassin contained ammo engraved with “transgender and anti-fascist ideology,” according to preliminary reports from law enforcement sources.
Ah. The “words and symbols” come into clearer focus. And it would seem that, once again and in the midst of an ongoing manhunt, legacy media would prefer to obscure details critical to exposing the identity of a criminal fugitive. It so turns out that these particular details have popped up relevant to other shootings, and have also been obscured by the media.
As we noted, those “words and symbols” are actually inspired by video games.
MRC writers went on to take offense at extremist right-wing rhetoric being called out, as Alex Christy did:
Former NFL wide receiver and current co-host of CBS Mornings Nate Burleson fumbled the ball on Thursday as he and his colleagues welcomed former GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to the set to react to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. After the murder of a conservative activist, Burleson first got in a dig at Kirk’s politics while insisting that he wasn’t interested in doing that before asking McCarthy if “your party” needs to tone down the rhetoric.
Burleson began, “Mr. Speaker, I want to get back to you. And as Tony mentioned, not everyone took to his words or his rhetoric. You know, at times they were offensive to specific communities. But with that said, this is not the time to focus on that, we are focused on this tragedy.”
Somebody seems focused on it.
Christy also touched on the words on the bullet casings:
The day after this segment aired, the shooter was arrested, and it was reported that he had World War II-Italian Resistance song titles, among other things, etched on the bullets. McCarthy’s point is well taken, but people who are envious of other people who fought actual Nazis in an actual war and now have to invent fake Nazis to compensate should listen especially carefully.
That song-title complaint is to “Bella Ciao,” which may actually be a reference to another video game, Far Cry 6.
Clay Waters huffed that it was accurately pointed out that right-wingers are using Kirk’s death as an excuse for censorship of non-right-wing views:
In a pathetic example of blame-shifting, Eric Levitz of Vox on Thursday afternoon used the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to condemn the right for imperiling democracy in “The right’s vicious, ironic response to Charlie Kirk’s death — They’re calling him a martyr for free speech as they demand a violent crackdown on progressive dissent.”
Kirk was shot while debating on a college campus in Utah, exemplifying the essence of free speech and democracy (despite ignorant shrieks of fascist from ghouls on social media).
Levitz, senior correspondent for the left-wing outlet, didn’t target Kirk directly but by proxy, laying vengefully into Kirk’s bloodthirsty right-wing colleagues out for revenge.
Waters didn’t dispute the accuracy of the observation; instead, he played whataboutism, whining about “The media and Democrats constantly comparing Trump and his supporters to Hitler and calling them fascist and threats to democracy.” No admission, of course, of his employer’s history of less-than-civil statements.