Media Rushes to Shift Focus of Paris Attacks Away from Jihadist Terror

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Before the dust had settled and even the extent of the damage and number of dead had been tallied from a string of terror attacks in Paris, France, liberals in the old media establishment were already writing pieces blaming conservatives, bemoaning that the attacks had taken the focus off pet liberal issues like Mizzou and global warming and wringing their hands over the safety of Muslims.

Salon was early out of the gate with a story twisting the terror attacks into a weapon to use against conservatives.

Even as Islamist terrorists were still killing people across Paris, Salon rushed to Twitter to essentially blame the terror attacks on conservative rhetoric, saying, “Real terror unfolds in Paris. Perhaps this will convince the right to done [sic] down their incessant violent rhetoric.”

The story the tweet links to goes on to attack conservatives for using “violent” rhetoric and for causing a harsh political climate in the US. So, to Salon, real, concrete terrorists actually killing over a hundred people and terrorizing thousands isn’t as bad as Republicans using “violent rhetoric” in a political discussion.

That wasn’t the only Salon story to misappropriate blame. In yet another Salon story, westerners are urged to “stop blaming Muslims and take a hard look at ourselves” to pinpoint who is at fault for the terror attacks.

But that is just one case of a left-wing site using the attacks in Paris as a weapon to beat up conservatives or western values. Many other media personalities and outlets followed that same line.

During his time on the air as the attacks were still ongoing, MSNBC’s disgraced anchor Brian Williams proved to be more worried that the terror attacks would overshadow the world’s attention to global warming than he was in the victims of the attacks. Williams was speaking to Weather Channel Managing Editor Sam Champion, who was in Paris to attend Al Gore’s big climate change summit that had to be canceled because the terror attacks interrupted the event. And at one point during the interview Williams asked, “What becomes of what you had hoped to be this big public campaign leading up the climate summit?”

Ironically, as people were being murdered throughout Paris, Al Gore has proclaimed that global warming is the biggest threat we face.

Not to be outdone for inappropriate use of the terror attacks for their own personal cause, the rabid, anti-Second Amendment group Moms Demand Action jumped to its Twitter account to send condolences to victims of ‘gun violence’ in Paris. See, it wasn’t Islamic terrorists that caused the terror attacks. It was guns.

Moms Demand Action wasn’t alone in using the terror attack to push an anti-Constitution message. Actor Ian Michael Black, who has starred in a series of not well known TV sitcoms and sketch comedy shows, also jumped to Twitter to ladle his gun control message on top of the news in Paris.

Next, as Breitbart’s John Nolte reported, CNN also used the terror attacks to push a gun control message here in the US, even as the attacks were still raging in the City of Lights.

American liberals weren’t alone in abusing the attacks to suit their own liberal agenda. Left-wing Guardian columnist Natalie Nougayrède also published a piece while the bodies in Paris were still warm saying that the “far-right groups” are the real problem and wringing her hands that Muslims would “face trauma” at the hands of nativists as a result of the attacks.

Instead of decrying the extremism and violence by jihadists, Nougayrède attacked “far-right groups” that would “fuel more hatred” against Muslims living in France.

Canada had its own share of liberals using the Paris attacks for their own pet issue. Doug Saunders, the international-affairs columnist for the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, also jumped to Twitter to attack Christians who were urging people to pray for the victims in France.

On Friday Saunders wrote, “‘Pray for Paris’ seems a cruel slogan to direct at a country whose very existence is a mass secular revolt against religious authority.”

Meanwhile, back in the US liberals were upset that the Paris terror attacks had taken their pet story of the so-called “racism” at the University of Missouri off the front pages.

For his part, Fergusson activist Deray McKesson equated the Paris attacks to the University of Missouri, as well. He also lumped in the death of Sandra Bland with the terror attacks in Paris, as if the ISIS attacks were just like Mizzou, Ferguson, and Sandra Bland’s death.

And even as terrorists were sneaking into Paris under the cover of being “refugees” to plan and carry out attacks that would kill over 100 people, President Obama was declaring that ISIS was “contained” and has been racing to expand the “refugee” program here in the US. It is a program that both Matt Drudge and Texas Senator Ted Cruz attacked on Friday night.

Speaking of taking in refugees, left-wing Rolling Stone quickly pushed out a piece on Saturday demanding that the U.S. take in more “refugees” from war-torn Middle Eastern nations, especially ISIS infested Syria.

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