Turning good news into bad

The conservative media ecosystem distorts reality to create fear and anger.

Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uptown_Charlotte_2018_taking_by_DJI_Phantom_4_pro_-_Perspective_Corrected_Edit.jpg

So here’s some good news. Charlotte is ranked one of the ten safest cities in America. According to the News & Observer, “The rate of violent crimes committed against adults also was one of the nation’s lowest at 0.0075 per capita, results show.” Of course, you wouldn’t know that by watching the news and social media lately.

Before the Charlie Kirk murder, the story dominating the news, at least on social media, was the horrific murder of a young Ukrainian immigrant by a deranged man on Charlotte’s light rail. Conservatives used the incident to spin up a “Democrats are soft on crime” narrative. The national outrage about the murder put Charlotte elected officials on the defensive and made crime a central issue in the mayoral and city council elections.

The incident mirrors what’s happening with Charlie Kirk’s murder. Conservatives are using an isolated incident to make broadly generalized accusations against Democrats—and it seems to be working. They blamed the Charlotte murder on Democrats for being soft on crime even though the facts contradict their narrative. They blame Kirk’s murder broadly on “the left,” though the assassination appears to be the work of a lone gunman.

The SmartAsset ranking debunks their contention that Charlotte is a dangerous city where criminals roam freely. Republicans have controlled the legislature for almost 15 years, so if the laws are lax, it’s their fault since they make them. Despite what conservatives claim, the killer was not on the street because of any Democratic policies. The city is largely safe even if it experienced a terrible crime.

We should be celebrating that we have a vibrant, growing city that’s safe and attractive for families. Instead, that reality will get drowned out by a chorus of right-wing pundits bashing Democrats for making Charlotte a dystopian hellscape. The powerful conservative media ecosystem distorts reality with a unified false narrative designed to provoke fear and direct anger towards Democrats. In the case of Charlotte, they are turning good news into bad.

Conservatives want a scared and angry populous to justify the extreme actions taken by the Trump administration. They want people to tolerate masked men grabbing people off the street and locking them up without due process. They want people to accept the military policing the civilian population. And they want people pliable enough to accept authoritarian measures that restrict civil rights to combat the imaginary enemies within our country. In essence, they want to ruin your day by suppressing good news and spreading bad.