Media Buries, MSNBC Ignores Shot Fired at Home of GOP Candidate’s Family

The liberal media has been extensively covering the assault of Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), at their home in San Francisco. It’s a major story, of course, with potentially far-reaching implications pertinent to the midterms and ongoing national discussions about political violence and more.

Yet that same highly-focused media’s keen interest when it comes to a shooting at the home of a North Carolinua Republican congressional candidate’s family?

Mostly crickets.

The Carolina Journal reported that shots were fired at the home of Pat Harrigan’s parents, where his children were staying, and “The shot entered only a few feet” away from where they were sleeping.

According to police, no one was injured and the investigation is ongoing.

From to the report:

[O]n Oct. 18, a shooting took place at the residence the parents of GOP congressional candidate Pat Harrigan, who is running against Democrat state Sen. Jeff Jackson in NC’s 14th congressional district.

CJ spoke with Harrigan campaign manager Brandon Craft, who said that someone shot into the Hickory residence and that the investigation has been on-going since that time. Harrigan’s parents currently own and live in the home, but Craft said that Harrigan’s children were in the home when the incident occurred and the shot entered only a few feet from where the children were sleeping.

…

The event comes in the midst of a fairly negative campaign between the two NC-14 candidates, with Harrigan recently challenging Jackson to a debate in an open letter and Jackson questioning Harrigan’s residency in NC-14.

CNN published a story on its website, but has yet to mention it on air at the time of this post, while MSNBC has not covered it.

The Washington Post simply republished the Associated Press story about the incident, while The New York Times has published just one story about it. There was a brief mention of it on a couple NBC News blogs.

CBS News, ABC News, NPR? Nothing, according to searches on their websites.

While, thankfully, no one was injured in the incident, there is zero excuse for not covering this incident.

Reporting on political violence or even potentially political violence should not be selected decided on whether the victim is a Democrat or a Republican. If the party was reversed, this would have made all the networks. The details are spare, but they would report it with even fewer details if it were a Republican. It was only recently that major media attributed a minor break-in in Arizona to Kari Lake’s rhetoric.

A bullet striking the home where a Democrat candidate’s children were sleeping would be major national news.

The media has been more than quick to blame the GOP and the right-wing in general for exacerbating tensions or creating a hostile political climate, and loathe to even hint that Democrats own any consequences of their own words.

No motive is established yet in the NC incident. That is true, however, of many incidents that are routinely attributed to the “atmosphere” or “climate” created by Republican criticism of Democrats.

The press has an obligation to cover the news reasonably and fairly, not pick and choose based on what is politically convenient. Otherwise, that’s not journalism but ideological and Democratic propaganda.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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