Democrats and the media have perfected the art of synchronized jumping, soon to be an Olympic sport, along with transgender weightlifting and shot put.  The media and Democrats jump in choreographed precision such that it is hard to distinguish the two groups.  For simplicity, let's just call them mediacrats.

The jumping to which I am referring is to and from conclusions.  In a court of law, jumping to a conclusion would be a jury rendering a verdict before the trial even begins.  Or, conversely, jumping away from a conclusion would mean exoneration despite the crime being caught on video from 17 different angles along with a notarized confession.

As El Rushbo likes to say, "it's not the nature of the evidence, but the seriousness of the charge" determining mediacrat reaction.  In other words, will the logical conclusion help or hurt mediacrat causes?  If their narrative advances one of their core issues, conclusions are swift and definitive.  Conversely, if harmful to their agenda, we cannot rush to judgment, and anyone who does so is immediately shut down.

Recent events illustrate the jumping mediacrats, making them look like Mexican jumping beans.  Sorry for any cultural appropriation.

Several days ago, a fire raged through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  A few facts might point one in the direction, although not to a definitive conclusion, but at least an educated guess and avenue of discussion, particularly by journalists who are purportedly trained to ask who, what, where, when, and why.

According to an article in ZeroHedge:

In France, two churches are desecrated every day on average.  According to PI-News, a German news site, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France in 2018.  This represents a 17% increase compared to the previous year (2017), when 878 attacks were registered — meaning that such attacks are only going from bad to worse.

From the UK Express:

A seven-day spree of vandalism has seen Catholic churches targeted across France sparking fears of a fresh wave of anti-Christian sentiment in the country, including one church being defiled with human excrement.

Add to that the Notre Dame fire occurring during Easter week, the holiest week on the Christian calendar, and Notre Dame representing arguably the most famous Catholic church in the world behind St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

This is like a jigsaw puzzle for a young child, with only four pieces.  It is really not intellectually challenging to fit those four pieces together — except for left-leaning journalists, in this case, ironically, Fox News anchors Shepard Smith and Neil Cavuto.  As reported by The Daily Beast:

While anchoring breaking-news coverage of the fire, Smith interviewed witness Philippe Karsenty, the deputy mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine and a controversial right-wing media figure.  Early in the call, Karsenty suggested that the Notre Dame blaze — which is currently being investigated as an accident — was a terrorist attack.

Shep wouldn't have it.  No such speculation on his airwaves, he exclaimed — "not on my watch."  This is to be distinguished from daily speculation about Trump-Russian collusion, which was a daily occurrence on his show.  Shep quickly had had enough, saying, "No, sir, we're not doing that here, not now, not on my watch," and cut off the interview.

I wonder: if he were discussing the desecration or burning of a black church in the American South and his guest from the Southern Poverty Law Center raised the possibility of racism, would Shep have cut off the interview?  Fat chance.

Fellow anchor Neil Cavuto also discovered a topic where he would jump far away from any conclusions.  He interviewed Catholic League president Bill Donohue, who "[r]aised the notion that this inferno was tied to other church burnings."

"Well, Neil, if it is an accident, it's a monumental tragedy," Donohoe said. "But forgive me for being suspicious."  He added: "Just last month, a 17th-century church was set on fire in Paris.  We have seen Tabernacles knocked down, crosses have been torn down, statues have been smashed."

No jumping to conclusions here on Neil's watch.  "We cannot make conjectures about this."  Cavuto then hung up the call.

The same jumping away from conclusions occurs every time a swarthy young man shouts "Allah akbar" before blowing something up or opening fire on a crowd of people.  Law enforcement officials are always "puzzled" as to motive, and mediacrats remind us not to rush to judgment, ignoring what is staring us in the face.

Yet it was perfectly reasonable to jump to the conclusion that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, meeting with several Trump campaign officials under false pretenses, and in coordination with dossier creator Fusion GPS, is prima facie evidence that President Trump is a Russian agent committing treason.  I haven't seen this kind of jumping in and out since doing the hokey-pokey.

There are many other situations when mediacrats jumped in without a second of thought or hesitation, facts and investigation be damned.  Brian Ross of CBS News gleefully announced to George Stephanopoulos that Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was a member of the Colorado Tea Party.  Sorry, but that was the wrong James.  Ross so badly wanted the shooter to be a Tea Partier.

The Obama administration immediately blamed the Benghazi attack on a YouTube video, and mediacrats were happy to jump along with them to that conclusion.

"Hands up, don't shoot" and the mean Covington High School kid in a MAGA hat, wearing a privileged smirk, mocking the poor old Indian guy were both conclusions immediately reached without evidence, repeated for days on cable news, castigating anyone who dared to suggest a different interpretation.

Finally, virtually all of Washington, D.C., the establishments of both parties, the media, and NeverTrump malcontents all jumped to the same conclusion: that Trump conspired with Russia to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, that he was a Russian agent, doing Putin's bidding, and is hopelessly in over his head as President of the United States.  Robert Mueller's report blows up their two years of zealous certainty.

Mediacrats have become too obvious, telegraphing the truth while they hop, skip, and jump around reality.  The rule of thumb is that when the media immediately have all the answers, they are invariably wrong.  And when they vociferously shut down alternate theories, that's where the truth likely lies.  Understand their jumping, and current events will all make sense.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer.  Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Image: Fox News screen shot via YouTube.