Media spin story of suspected political hate crime in Florida: 'Republicans vow revenge...'

If you consume the majority of your news from the mainstream media, you probably did not hear that, over the weekend, a man intentionally drove his van into a small group of elderly Trump campaign volunteers in Duval County, Florida, who were registering people to vote.

The New York Times, for example, has posted only compiled stories from the Associated Press to its website, instead of assigning a reporter from its massive newsroom to inform readers of a crime that Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said was motivated by political hate.

But some mainstream outlets have covered the story — but with massive spin.

Politico, for example, framed its story around the Duval County Republican Party vowing to take "revenge" for the attack — at the ballot box, of course.

To their credit, the Washington Post and CNN have devoted minimal coverage to the story.

This writer's perspective

Politico's spin, and the media's overall reaction to the story, perfectly encapsulates Donald Trump's rapid political ascension. That the media fail to recognize the significance of this story perfectly encapsulates their overt arrogance for Trump supporters and fly-over America.

We know that, had the perpetrator in this case worn a MAGA hat and drove his van through elderly Democrats, the story would be front-page, headline news; CNN and MSNBC would be running long segments dedicated to the crime, while the New York Times and Washington Post would assign droves of reporters to cover the perpetrator's background, motivation, and the implications such a crime has for the president.

The media's reaction to this story contrasted to coverage of anti-media or anti-Democrat stories is but another example of why President Trump will likely cruise to win re-election.

It's not that tens of millions of Americans do not just feel as if they are not heard, but they believe the media and the New York and Washington, D.C., institutions of power simply do not care about them or their many legitimate concerns.

If the three years of Trump's presidency have proved anything, it is that the media have yet to humble themselves enough to engage in deep, transformative self-reflection; the mainstream media and east coast elite no doubt helped send Trump to the White House — yet they still do not realize it.

Perhaps four more years of Trump will initiate a wave of repentance in the media. But that is unlikely to happen.

Instead, the media's out-of-touch smugness will continue to sabotage the Democratic Party's political aspirations, sow further division, and ensure that MAGA wins.