The comments expresses the writer’s opinions.
Night until Wednesday 8 June a man tried to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He was appointed by President Trump in 2018.
The indictment against the perpetrator shows that the motive was political, that it was a Supreme Court ruling on abortion coming this month, and a feeling that Kavanaugh will not support stricter gun laws in the wake of The Uvalde killings.
The assassination attempt evokes associations with the conspiracy theory storm of Congress on January 6, 2021.
Just as the angry Trump supporters had no real opportunity to stop the legitimacy of the election result, Kavanaugh’s voice in the abortion case is probably already a fact, and thus not to change, even if he had been killed.
June 8 – the same day as the assassination attempt – is one of three remaining days in June where the publication of Supreme Court rulings is expected.
Let there be no doubt: this was an attempt to insult democracy in the United States with political violence.
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NTB could mention this
It is not commonplace for someone to try to kill a Supreme Court justice. Nevertheless, the Norwegian media shrugged off the assassination attempt against Kavanaugh – which is in stark contrast to how they otherwise cover American conditions.
The contrast is so striking that it becomes almost absurd to point it out.
But when almost no one who reads or watches NRK once realizes that the assassination attempt has taken place, then almost no one will realize that NRK, and partly NRK-owned NTB, shows zero real interest in such a clear and historical example of political violence in the United States.
NTB’s longest news release about the assassination attempt is a poor 160 words, and almost no Norwegian newspapers have published it.
In the news release, NTB does not discuss anything about what led up to the assassination attempt, as they usually do when it comes to threats and violence against the American left or the Democrats. The press usually tends to find a political scapegoat beyond the perpetrator, such as the gun lobby or NRA after a mass murder.
But not when it is clear that the perpetrator’s sympathies lie with the Democrats and the left.
NTB could be mentioned that the left-wing radical group Ruth Sent Us for over a month has been organizing and promoting demonstrations outside the private residences of Supreme Court justices who are believed to disapprove of Roe v. Wade later this month.
NTB could be mentioned that the same groups published the private addresses of the Supreme Court judges, which must be seen as a direct threat to them and their families.
NTB could be mentioned that the leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and her majority with her colleagues from the Democrats refused to increase appropriations for security for the Supreme Court judges.
NTB could be mentioned that Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have in the past used such hostile rhetoric against Supreme Court justices that Supreme Court Justice John Roberts in 2020 criticized them with an official statement.
– You have unleashed a whirlwind and want to pay the price, you will not know what hit you if you go ahead with these court decisions, Schumer said in 2020.
Of course, NTB did not write a case when this unusually sharpened rhetoric against the Supreme Court – and the response from the Supreme Court.
Such factual information would have helped to make the Democrats responsible for the assassination attempt. We should not have any of that in the Norwegian press, it is only with the Republicans that they play “guilt-by-association”.
NTB wrote 200 words about Donald Trump during the 2016 primary election campaign boasted that he could shoot someone on the open street in New York and still received the most votes.
A sensational statement? Undoubtedly.
More important than someone trying to kill a Supreme Court justice and try to stop an upcoming ruling that could change American political history forever? No, of course not.
Here you can read more comments from George Gooding
George Gooding
George K. Gooding is a Norwegian-American public debater, media critic and computer engineer. He has been a regular columnist in Nettavisen for many years. Made life miserable for journalists since 2004. Educated at Høgskulen på Vestlandet. Residing in Bærum.
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No shortage of cases from the United States
So why is it still the case that quite obviously newsworthy, objectively more interesting, important, critical issues such as the assassination attempt against Kavanaugh are doused down, downplayed and explained away by Norwegian journalists? Why is violence against the American right so uninteresting for Norwegian journalists that we support with our tax money?
It has been almost a week since the assassin was arrested, but NRK has still not written a complete news article about the case. Nor have they mentioned it on the news on TV or radio. NRK’s only coverage of the case is two short news releases online that disappeared before almost anyone got it.
Since the assassination attempt was announced, NRK has covered several news from the United States on TV, including about the outcome after the Uvalde killings and that the actor Matthew McConaughey held an appeal for stricter gun laws. Despite the fact that the perpetrator who intended to kill Kavanaugh says that he was incited by the political dragon fight over firearms after the Uvalde killings, NRK is unable to mention it in a side note.
The victims and the outcome after a mass murder are absolutely newsworthy, the same can be said about an actor getting involved in the politics of firearms, even if it has a slightly more tabloid character. But isn’t an assassination attempt against a sitting Supreme Court judge also very newsworthy, NRK?
NRK has also covered that the House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill to increase the age for the purchase of semi-automatic firearms. Also newsworthy, although it is expected that the bill will meet the wall in the Senate. But then one would think that a current case that someone tried to kill a Supreme Court judge to prevent him from rejecting exactly that type of bill would be relevant to mention.
Men, nei.
How can the editorial staff of NRK and NTB explain this? We’re all seen how they cover all sorts of nonsense that comes out of Trump’s mouth, or a strip of other tabloid, unimportant, ragged news items daily.
These are Nettavisen’s columnists
Divides the population into an in-group and an out-group
At the top of the front page of NRK.no at the time of writing: «Today the holiday money is ticking in:
Economist: – Dangerous to feel newly rich». Yes, but is this more important than someone trying to kill a US Supreme Court justice?
A little further down: «Flaggdrama i «Top Gun». Sure, it’s very interesting that there was big politics of flags on a jacket in a movie, but…
Do NRK’s journalists not understand the seriousness of what has happened? Or will they not understand the seriousness? Or do they simply not care if someone threatens what they consider conservative Americans with political violence?
I think, unfortunately, that it is not that far from the truth. Journalists today divide the population into an in-group and an out-group on a case-by-case basis, where they are always in the in-group themselves – and show total contempt for the out-group.
Kavanaugh is among them, the others, and thus has no human value. Therefore, threats to his life and health trigger yawns from Norwegian newsrooms.
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