Al Sharpton covered the Newark ICE detention center story on MSNBC this week and somehow — somehow — managed to leave out the part where protesters violently attacked federal agents. The man who built an entire career on selective outrage has outdone himself.
Shocking, I know. Al Sharpton being dishonest on television. Next you'll tell me water is wet.
Here's what actually happened at the Newark, New Jersey ICE detention facility: protesters showed up, things got ugly, and video evidence clearly shows demonstrators physically attacking ICE agents. This isn't disputed. It's on camera. Multiple angles. Clear as day.
But when Sharpton brought the story to his MSNBC audience, he painted a very different picture. In Sharpton's telling, it was the ICE agents who were the aggressors. The violent attacks by protesters? Never happened. The footage of demonstrators assaulting federal officers? Must have gotten lost in the mail.
This is what Sharpton does. It's what he's always done. Find a story, strip out any context that doesn't fit the narrative, present the remainder as gospel truth, and dare anyone to correct him.
The man has turned selective outrage into an art form. He's been doing it since Tawana Brawley. He did it with Freddie Gray. He does it every single week on his MSNBC show. The formula never changes: law enforcement bad, protesters good, facts optional.
But this time the evidence is particularly damning. Video from the Newark ICE facility clearly shows protesters initiating violence against agents. Not agents attacking protesters. Not agents using excessive force. Protesters. Attacking. Agents.
And Al Sharpton looked at that footage — or more likely, had his producers look at it — and decided his viewers didn't need to see it. Didn't need to know about it. Didn't need to factor it into their understanding of what's happening in Newark.
Because if his audience knew that protesters were the violent ones, the whole narrative collapses. You can't paint ICE as jackbooted thugs terrorizing a community when the community is the one throwing punches.
This is media manipulation in real time, as reported by MRC Video. It's not subtle. It's not sophisticated. It's just a guy with a TV show deciding which facts his audience gets to hear based on which political outcome he wants.
And we're supposed to trust these people to inform the public. We're supposed to believe MSNBC is a serious news organization when one of their hosts is actively hiding evidence of violence against law enforcement because it doesn't fit the approved storyline.
Al Sharpton ignoring inconvenient violence. The sky is blue. Thursday follows Wednesday. Some things never change.