The usual suspects on the CNN and MSNBC claim no president has ever called on the National Guard or the Army to put down riots and revolts.
“Unprecedented,” said Larry O’Donnell on MNSBC.
“Dictatorship,” declared CNN’s Don Lemon.
Once upon a time, people in journalism had good historical educations. Reporters of the past didn’t necessarily study history in college. Most learned history by researching current stories. This is how most people learn most of what they know. It’s similar to the scientific method: observe, form a hypothesis, research to see how this instance might relate to events in the past, report your findings.
Modern journalists, though, lack curiosity and humility. Don Lemon believes only in what he has seen and rejects the possibility that there are things he doesn’t know.
Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, the man who invented behavioral economics, calls this cognitive bias “What You See Is All There Is,” or WYSIATI.
Don Lemon and Larry O’Donnell are extreme examples of WYSIATI. They don’t remember the 1992 Rodney King riots, so those riots didn’t happen. If someone attempts to remind these journalists of the incident, they will accuse the guest of racism and conspiracy theorizing.
Writer David Harsanyi provided a little history lesson to Messrs. Lemon and O’Donnell:
George H. W. Bush called the LA riots "anarchy" on day one, and by day three oked the activation of 10,000 Army National Guard troops. On day 4 he sent another 3,500 federal federal troops. Afterwards he called the riots "purely criminal."
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) June 2, 2020
I’ll repeat the text since Twitter will likely remove this post. It doesn’t conform to “official” guidance.
George H. W. Bush called the LA riots “anarchy” on day one, and by day three, okayed the activation of 10,000 Army National Guard troops. On day 4 he sent another 3,500 federal troops. Afterward, he called the riots “purely criminal.”
Mr. Harsanyi went further, quoting then-President Barack Obama’s statement on riots in Baltimore in 2015:
Twitter has censored this tweet
Obama’s comments on the 2015 Baltimore riots: “President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned the “criminals and thugs who tore up” the city of Baltimore.”
To dig up this arcane piece of history, Harsanyi simply searched Google. That’s more work than Lemon and O’Donnell have done in a decade.
This enlightenment is lost on the new journalists, sadly. Leftists in general wallow in their ignorance. Ignorance to them is like a billboard on the side of the road that says, “Whatever you think, it’s right!”
Curiosity and learning require humility. But Don Lemon and Lawrence O’Donnell know they’re right. They have nothing left to learn. What they see is all there is.