American carnage: how conservative media amplify Trump's theme of chaos

Whether you believe the country is in the grip of an explosion of violence significantly depends on what media you listen to

Mayors across the United States have rejected Donald Trump’s election-season depiction of their cities as awash in violence, and media coverage of peaceful protests in Portland and elsewhere has belied the president’s claims of widespread “anarchy”.

But for Americans who mainly consume conservative media, Trump’s latest evocation of an “American carnage”, with “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence” is as plain as the news flashing across the screen.

The stars of conservative cable TV programs and the biggest conservative news sites and social media accounts have echoed and amplified Trump since he declared himself “your president of law and order” in an appearance outside the White House in early June.

Over the last week, however, alarm over the security of America’s cities has intensified on the conservative airways.

“These vicious, violent, hate-filled, anti-American protesters are also attacking federal buildings,” Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show last week. “How many stores and parks and statues and public buildings have been destroyed recently by rioters?” the Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked last month. “Reign of street terrorists”, the conservative radio host Mark Levin tweeted with a story about the removal and defacement of statues and monuments.

Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/24/donald-trump-conservative-media-protests-anarchy