What we used to call "the news" is no longer actually news.  It's a thought-free regurgitation of what the newsreaders are told to say.  They can have the same intonation talking about a fire burning someone's home, a shooting, a basketball game score, or the weather.  The one thing they don't talk about at all is anything that runs counter to the official narrative — such as violent protests by people other than "white supremacists."

The newsreaders' jobs begin and end, or so it seems to the viewer, with sitting either in their own living room or, more rarely, on the set, and parroting.  My bet is that it's like that everywhere these days, not just in sunny California.

Listening to the local news Sunday night, all the lead stories were, as usual, about COVID.  They supported the nanny state restrictions without questioning anything.  Straight ideology, zero empathy.  Then came the teachers' "plight" that kept them from the classroom.  Next, we got a smattering of info on the daily shootings in Oakland, a carjacking in San Francisco, and a report of the catastrophic fires caused by "encampments" of the "unhoused" near businesses.

The latest victim is the Vietnamese Cultural Center, and it's a total loss.  There was a soupçon of empathy expressed at exactly the right moment about the Center's destruction when it was mentioned that the center would be missed as it fed the unhoused.

On the national level, it appeared to be a quiet weekend other than the Super Bowl being played.  And did anyone else get the impression of a Ku Klux Klan–meets-Antifa rally from that pathetic halftime mask show?

The news looked forward dispassionately to the impeachment trial, as well.  Nothing at all was mentioned about any violent clashes occurring nationally over the weekend.  If they had been mentioned, it surely would have been without a hint of indignation.

If you looked on any of your standard online search engines, again, it appeared that not much happened this weekend.  CNN helpfully offered the latest stories, including breaking down racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations and reporting on a mural in Houston honoring George Floyd being unveiled in front of his high school alma mater.

Never mind that there was a massive prison riot in St. Louis.  Or an angry BLM and Antifa demonstration in Washington, D.C.  Yes, you could find info on St. Louis, if you already knew that it had happened and specifically searched, but that's it.  Searching for "BLM D.C. Protest," you get inundated with January 7 news.  The above link is to a GOP website, not a news outlet.

I went to search on Brave because I knew "some people did something," as one of our illustrious Democrat representatives once said.  Executing the same search on Brave — "BLM D.C. Protest" — I found a Fox news article on Antifa members threatening to burn down D.C. during the Saturday evening BLM march.

The article explained that the daytime event was billed as a "DC Queer and Trans Black History Month March and Rally" and was set for a 2 P.M. start.  It appeared to have been completed without violence.  Later, however, BLM and Antifa protesters marched, harassing and terrifying diners enjoying outdoor restaurant meals.  They chanted violent slogans and clashed at least briefly with D.C. police, all of whom appear to have had bike helmets on.  They threatened to "Burn down D.C." if they didn't get what they wanted.  Whatever that is.

It's instructive that we have a city under siege, surrounded by fences and barbed wire, but these Antifa and BLM folks can still come and make trouble, and nobody says "boo."

It's instructive, too, that local news outlets are so blasé about such clashes that they don't report on them.  The other thing that has been neglected is reporting about how murders, shootings, and violent crimes are on an upswing in most of our major cities, especially the ones that succumbed to police defunding demands.  These things just don't fit the narrative.

The news used to impart information, apprising people of local, national, and international events.  Now, though, the nightly news is a stream of propaganda from activists presenting a seamless Democrat narrative called "the news."

Image: Watching the news by Mohamed Hassan.  Public Domain.