Anatomy of a Manufactured Narrative: Throwing the Penalty Flag on the Press Targeting Justice Alito
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been the focus of a media onslaught for over a week now, in the most ridiculous ways. The reasons for this seem to be obvious, but there is also an unfocused aspect. Are they attempting to compel him to quit in order to grant President Biden a SCOTUS appointment before the election? Or is it a desire to have him recuse himself from any Donald Trump or January 6 cases the Court might entertain?
Whichever goal is in mind, the efforts to target the justice are as transparently partisan as they are lame in execution. What's amazing about this coordinated assault is how soft the charges are in light of the full-throated outrage blaring from the headlines. The idea that a SCOTUS member flying a pair of flags is somehow a disqualifying activity is already a stretch; the facts behind these instances make this more asinine.
That Alito is under particular focus is highlighted by yet a third story to emerge between the flag controversies. Chris Hayes of MSNBC claimed to have a financial detail that delivers “An appearance of bias.” Last summer, Alito sold off his holdings in Anheuser-Bush stock and on the same day bought shares in the competition, Molson-Coors. What is the bias, exactly? Well, Hayes never actually explains, and he even gets details wrong in the process.
The host attempts to say Justice Alito was motivated by “the MAGA fever swamps” and declares that Alito made this stock switch immediately after singer Kid Rock shot up cases of Bud Light on video. Except this non-scandalous stock buy took place in August, while the Bud Light controversy and the Kid Rock video took place in April of 2023. If anything Alito was late to the game, but even so, his selling off a plunging stock and buying the competitor who was benefitting is in no way controversial.
This story of course came immediately after the initial controversy, that being that the American flag was flown inverted at the Alito home. This has been declared as a sign of allegiance to the January 6 protests, proof that he supports insurrection, and is so undemocratic that he needs to step down from the bench. The details however expose the sham of these reports.
The New York Times, in “breaking” the story, had been tipped off on this occurrence, claiming that the flag display that has long been understood as a sign of distress was a “stop the steal flag." Going most underreported is that this display took place years ago. The facts were that a feud had erupted with Alito’s neighbors and the judge’s wife made that display in response to yard signs that had been posted directed at the justice. This episode had been investigated by the Washington Post – in January of 2021 - but the paper felt the explanation of the display did not ultimately warrant news coverage. Now three years later the Times was hoping to leverage the non-story and build it into a scandal.
In identical fashion, the same outlet came out with the next non-troversy. Now we were told that Alito was seen flying a different problematic flag at his vacation home in New Jersey. This was the baseless claim that the historic “Appeal To Heaven” flag - one crafted for George Washington ahead of the Declaration of Independence - had become transformed as a symbol of the January 6 uprising. Three reporters were used to claim this flag, seen at the beach house last July, is suddenly considered “provocative.”
Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google Street View image from late August also shows the flag.
The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court.
In its tortured attempt to cement this flag as a known insurrection emblem, the outlet has to ignore many other aspects. The flag has been displayed at the state capitols of Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Arizona, and was spotted flying outside city hall in San Francisco. What makes all of this sudden insistence of insurrection symbolism proven to be manufactured is that somehow these details of this flag escaped the analysis of these same outlets over the past four years.
When CNN studied all of the symbols and iconography seen during the Capitol riot, they never managed to include the “Appeal To Heaven” flag. One other media study of this nature defies the New York Times' new declaration that this flag is an insurrection emblem – that was the one conducted by the very same New York Times.
This exposes the desperation seen in the press this past week. After years of exhaustive study spent looking for any indicator they could find to accuse anyone of insurrection, somehow this historic flag never managed to ping on the media's radar - until last week.
We are looking at a completely fabricated outrage, and the press has resorted to reporting on the “growing” tide of indignation to have Alito step down – coming from the press. This lame attempt is producing little more than eye-rolling from the public. The news outlets need to wave their white flags on this issue.
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