There is perhaps no more delicious moment in media than when hypocritical and condescending journalists have their biases and prejudices thrown in their faces. Maybe tastier? If this is done for several journalists at the same time. This happened last night on the Ambien Phillip show “NewsNight.” Sorry, sorry – “Abby“Phillip. Her soporific performance is such that it unnerves me at times.
Phillip hosted a immense panel discussion and the discussion centered around Donald Trump and his treatment of minorities. A race discussion on CNN? How the hell did this happen? The go wrong?!?! One of the speakers was conservative Ryan Girdusky, and he managed to anger the other sitting members by daring to cite reality. He referenced some of the aftermath of the George Floyd incident and subsequent unrest in 2020 and brought up a detail about how other Black citizens unintentionally felt at risk.
I mentioned the Ferguson and Floyd effect on CNN…surprisingly, none of the Democrats on the panel had ever heard of it. pic.twitter.com/DckpbqzElS
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 16, 2024
After the increased reaction and conversation, Bakari Sellers first came forward to dispute Ryan’s comment, then host Phillip explained that this claim was based on Girdusky’s “own guess.” He tried to clarify and explain that this was not his creation, but was repeatedly discussed.
Girdusky then invoked the terms “The Floyd Effect” and “The Ferguson Effect” – which is the tendency (at least at the time) of police to restrain their activities because they did not want to provoke a racist backlash, which led to an escalate in crime and deaths for members of the black community — but at that point few at the table were even listening. Her need to contain his comments prevented her from listening to his presentation of material elements, which is a surefire way to beat your argument in your face, Acme Regulation style. Phillip then continued her condescension by completely dismissing Girdusky’s comment.
We have to stop you there. You can’t just invent a connection between two things – just because you want that connection.
From there the panel became a torrent of howling complaints and Phillip had to put an end to it. Sellers then reached out, brought up “intellectual honesty” and accused Donald Trump of never speaking about the death of George Floyd. This was a solid case of intellectualism dishonestyas Trump actually remembered Floyd and his family. But Ryan’s key point is that this panel, becoming emotionally reactive, exposed their ignorance.
They didn’t like Girdusky’s mention of this “Floyd Ferguson effect,” but by accusing him of fabricating the outcome of the riots, they stepped on a number of rakes. It was a very real event that occurred after the George Floyd and Michael Brown riots and was noted and investigated by the FBI. Also a significant inconvenience for the hysterics on the panel and especially for the host Abby Phillip – It was reported by none other than CNN.
A series of high-profile police shootings, many filmed on ubiquitous camera phones, have sparked protests against police tactics that critics say are heavy-handed. In some cities, police officers privately report that they are holding off on stops for fear of becoming the next YouTube “Bad Cop” sensation. They call it the Ferguson effect.
Simply incredible. This is because you fail to regulate your emotional response and fall prey to knee-jerk, accusatory reactions. You don’t like what someone says, so you have to denigrate either their comment or their character. You certainly cannot fathom that this uncomfortable concept being presented to you can actually be a reality.
Phillip demonstrates this further in the latter stages of this clip above. She repeatedly claims that Girdusky and Republicans say Biden is responsible for crimes committed during his time in office, but that Donald Trump is not also guilty. She accuses Ryan of blaming Biden and Kamala Harris for the rise in crime, and he has to repeatedly tell her that those words were never spoken. Her mind simply automatically wandered into that area, entirely due to her own biases.
This is a remarkable moment that teaches what is so wrong in the press. They are so tied to narratives spun from gaunt air, narratives of their own making, that when shown a disqualifying dose of reality, they lose control. The result is that they deny that something happened, while their own network has previously confirmed the very thing they are denying.
