The Media Backing Away from the Left’s Narrative About the Michael Brown Case

Protests continue around the country but some elements in the media are starting to back away from the Brown case as a racial outrage.

Case in point, the lead story at the New Republic this morning is headlined “The Ferguson Decision Was Not a ‘Miscarriage of Justice.’ Liberals Need to Accept That.” The story, by John Judis, is a signal to other journalists that this story doesn’t really match the one they’ve been telling.

While the grand jury and federal and local investigators receivedwitness testimony that was contradictory (which is in line with whatcriminologists expect in these kind of cases), it received physicalevidence from autopsy and DNA and hospital reports that wasn’t open tothe same kind of questions. This evidence suggested that there weregrounds for believing that Brown had scuffled with Wilson in the policecar and had even grabbed the officer’s gun. That conformed roughly toWilson’s own account of what had happened in the police car. 

The physical evidence ruled out that Wilson had shot Brown in the backwhile running away, as Brown’s companion Dorian Johnson initially had claimed.And it was not conclusive one way or the other on whether Brown had,after he turned around to face Wilson, tried to surrender. In all, theforensic evidence did not prove Wilson innocent of killing Brown when hewas trying to surrender, but it also did not give the grand Jury

What’s striking is that so many on the progressive left have continued to deny the facts for so long. The autopsy findings were released more than a month ago. It was obvious then that they didn’t accord with the left’s narrative about the case.

Rather than admit that the facts didn’t seem to line up with the claims made by unreliable witnesses, progressive outlets competed to accuse Wilson of lying without any facts to back them up. One writer said the real story set off his BS detector. Another said it sounded like a “myth.” Another writer said he doubted Wilson’s account was true even after admitting it matched the evidence.

But slowly the media is turning away from the left’s narrative. Over at MSNBC, Joe Scarborough called out his own network this morning:

I have sat here quietly and listened to BS being spewed all over thisnetwork and all over other networks. I can’t take it anymore. I willsay what I said last week. And I say this not to black children acrossAmerica. Because as I have said repeatedly on this show time and timeagain to people like Gene Robinson, there are two justice systems inAmerica…

But, Donnie, in this case, if my child or your child knocked over aconvenience store and then went down the middle of the street shoutingprofanities at a police officer — let’s just say in Staten Island, inQueens — and then went into the car and started punching the policeofficer and grabbing for his gun, he would probably be shot in the car.

That statement can’t have gone over well inside MSNBC’s corporate offices.