The Newburyport News, in an editorial titled, “Violent attacks on journalists also assault the truth,” is reporting multiple acts of vandalism at homes linked to a “journalist” who works for New Hampshire Public Radio or their family members.
A reporter’s current and former homes on Lynn Fells Parkway in Melrose and in Hampstead, N.H., were vandalized May 21. In the Melrose attack, a man spray-painted the words “Just the beginning!” in red on the home, threw a brick through a window and ran away. The incident was caught on a Ring home-security camera. Earlier the same day, in Hampstead, a vandal spray-painted an obscenity on a garage door and threw a brick at the house.
The article predictably invokes the Trump era and his negative opinion of the “the media” but notes that his presidency and the pandemic increased “circulation as readers searched for accurate information about a world that was coming apart around them.”
Up to this point, we have accusations of journalism by NHPR reporters and the notion that “the media” provides accurate information. As a long-time observer, I can tell you that what they do is not objective (There’s a reason why we call NPR Nancy Pelosi Radio). NHPR is just the local franchise.
They cherry-pick the truths they tell and pander to the ruling class narratives, so while brick-throwing is “violent” and the graffiti might be intimidating, “assault on the truth” is a stretch.
Getting paid to do it does not give it any more legitimacy than the idea that prostitution makes you good in bed.
That’s not to say these blind squirrels don’t find a nut every once in a while. And maybe a different nut has triggered someone who is now spray-painting and brick-throwing. To that point, knock it off and have some perspective. This isn’t about George Floyd’s self-administered overdose resulting in his death while in police custody.
Violence and intimidation are tools of the Left (assuming this isn’t some left-wing stooge) and are reserved for matters that advance national policy. And this isn’t some “blogger.” We’re talking about Lauren Chooljian, who is an actual “reporter” investigating “Granite Recovery Centers,” which has ties to major players in the New Hampshire equivalent to the DC ruling class swamp.
Major political donors, developers, movers, and shakers. People with a lot of dirt on their hands.
So, it would not be beyond them to use a proxy to intimidate Chooljian if she’s set a fire under their feet, so I’m glad to hear she’ll keep at it. But I think we need to understand that, on the whole, NPR and NHPR are as much a whore to the Left’s national agenda as CNN or MSNBC, ABC, NBC, or CBS. And while breaking a story about corruption in NH is admirable – the place is a cesspit of sins – the Newburyport News headline is laughable.
The professional media in America hides more truth than it reveals. So, while this may be an assault on the First Amendment or an attack on Free Speech, let’s not get too carried away with the idea that every effort serves some greater good.
That’s simply not the case.
