Burning cities, charred credibility.

I recently created a tag called "Institutional Rot." 

It's applicable to a variety of once-reliable organizations across the nation and the world.

And it most definitely applies to the only private enterprise protected by the First Amendment, our malodorous corporate media subsidiaries.

Get a load of this title: Kenosha protests peaceful after night of chaos and shootings. 

Then note the first sentence:

Protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, were mostly peaceful following the arrest of a 17-year-old police admirer accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a chaotic night of demonstrations and unrest.

Emphasis added.

"Mostly peaceful." "Police admirer." [Shock! Horror!]

With respect to the first, you will note that "mostly peaceful" is like a "little pregnant" only in reverse. "A little violent" would ruin the narrative, and the AP is definitely building a narrative. So what about the parts that weren't peaceful? The Associated Press doesn't say.

But you will hear a lot about the [alleged] shooter's stated views, statements from friends of the shooting victims and condemnations of "white militias." It's a nifty bit of well-poisoning, but doesn't help much in determining what actually went down.

You have to look elsewhere for information like...the man who survived the shooting was brandishing a handgun [confirmation pictures here], or that one of the dead men attacked the [alleged] shooter with his skateboard. The other dead man was found guilty of a heinous crime, but that matters no more than the shooter's FB page when it comes to gleaning the actual facts of the incident. Oh, and a couple of the victims were also known for left-wing politics. But again, as with the [alleged] shooter, that's neither here nor there, when it comes to what actually went down. However, you will never find out about their views from places like the AP.

The [alleged] shooter shouldn't have been there--we don't need 17 year olds crossing State lines to play Wyatt Earp. Two men are dead because he [allegedly] shot them, and he will have to live with the consequences of that, regardless of how the legal process plays out. 

The reality is, if the locals want to watch their city burn, then you will have to let them. You can't help, and they get what they vote for.

But to get a reasonably balanced picture of the August 25th Kenosha shootings, you cannot rely on once-respectable media institutions. They are as rotten as the rest of the American political edifice, and are the most fiercely-partisan. 

Which should be more infuriating than it is. But the only thing you can do is recognize the bias, look for the deliberate holes in the story and try to sift from other sources.

Good times.