When you can no longer tell the difference between a cable news channel and an internet meme, then it isn’t a cable news channel anymore.
Last night on MSNBC, on-air personality Ali Velshi transformed from “on the scene reporter” to living meme before our very eyes.
Well, not my very eyes as I don’t have cable and don’t waste my time watching MSNBC.
Any old how. Take a look at Ali Velshi reporting on the peaceful protest in Minneapolis.
MSNBC reporter just now: "I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly."
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 29, 2020
The guy is literally standing in front of a burning building in the middle of a riot. pic.twitter.com/IzCV6On4sF
Did Velshi intentionally channel that meme of Leslie Nielsen in front of a burning building?
Or is Ali Velshi so lacking in self-awareness that it didn’t even dawn on him?
Now, I realize that the cable news channels are working tirelessly to portray the violent thugs burning their own city to the ground as noble protesters defending their liberty.
But come on.
Are we supposed to believe our lying eyes or Ali Velshi?
This is the cable news channel that was collectively clutching its pearls over the protesters who went to Lansing to protest Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown. They were terrorists, don’t you know.
No buildings burned in Lansing.
No stores were looted in Lansing.
Nobody was shot with those scary “assault weapons” carried by the protesters.
Even now, MSNBC’s Joy Reid is babbling with indignant rage that those peaceful protesters in Michigan who were not at all “unruly,” let alone destructive, were treated differently by the police than the maniacs burning Minneapolis to the ground.
Actually, in Michigan, the police were present.
In Minneapolis, the police are apparently giving these rioters “space to destroy.”
Maybe, Joy, the reason the police didn’t fire rubber bullets at the people in Michigan is because the people in Michigan weren’t looting stores, setting fires, throwing projectiles, or attacking and shooting people.
If Ali Velshi and Joy Reid can’t see the difference between peaceful protests and violent riots, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in the news reporting business.
In a way I’m not surprised that Ali Velshi has turned himself into a living, breathing meme. MSNBC became a parody of “news” years ago.