In a letter published last week (Yellow Journalism: The Progress, Feb. 14), Rob Biller accuses Progress editor Vernon Robison of “yellow journalism.”
The letter claims that in a Feb. 7 editorial column, Robison put “sensationalism over facts” and somehow betrayed his duty as a journalist “watch-dog.”
Unfortunately, it is Mr. Biller’s letter that exhibited a complete disregard of the facts.
For instance, the letter criticizes Robison’s assertion that Trump organized and incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. It suggests that Robison knew that this was a lie.
But it is not a lie. To see and recognize truth, one must be able to look at all the known facts, put them in context and draw reasonable conclusions.
The fact is that Mr. Trump organized the Jan. 6 gathering only after a whole string of desperate attempts to manipulate the results of the 2020 election had failed.
After the loss was certified, Trump still claimed widespread fraud in the election. He leveraged the office of the President against both state and federal officials.
The proof of this is a mile deep. It is in recorded phone conversations between Trump and Georgia election officials from his own party! It is in similar phone calls with Gov. Doug Ducey (R) of Arizona pressuring Ducey to overturn the state’s results due to his claim of fraudulent votes.
But proof of any substantial voter fraud was never found by the GOP officials in either Georgia or Arizona. No proof was ever produced by the President or his advisors. And no evidence was produced throughout multiple legal proceedings in the courts, many of whom were presided over by Trump’s own appointees.
Still Trump continued to vehemently broadcast that the election had been stolen from him; never mind the evidence (or lack thereof).
All of this was just a backdrop to explosive rhetoric Trump used to gather his most extreme faithful to Washington on Jan. 6.
Surely the “Twitter President” was aware of the communications being circulated on social media in the days leading up to Jan. 6. Surely he knew of the posts from extremist groups which threatened to turn out in force, overwhelm law enforcement, intimidate Congress and invade the Capitol. Public documents from Trump’s own intelligence agencies knew about these threats. So if Trump didn’t know, he should have!
Mr. Biller insists that only a couple of people in the huge crowd were found to be armed. But that wasn’t the view expressed by Secret Service agents on the ground that day. Official Secret Service communications show that agents were aware that many members of the crowd were armed. They were concerned about violence breaking out.
But even if you accept the far-fetched notion that no one was carrying firearms in the crowd, the results were the same. The mob marched on the Capitol. They employed weapons of various kinds to gain access including flagpoles, bear spray, fists, boots, whatever was on hand. It is on the video for heavens sake!
The fact is, they overwhelmed the Capitol police chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” I’m no genius, but that bears all the markings of a violent insurrection!
The President did use the words “peacefully march” in his speech. But given all of this context and the manic state of the crowd; those words would have been but a whisper alongside a much stronger message.
Let’s get real! What those people heard was “Fight! Fight! Fight!” And either way, that’s what happened.
Mr. Robison was right. He brought in the known facts to portray things clearly – like a responsible “watch dog” should do. It is Mr. Biller’s letter that was guilty of taking sensation over facts.
No U.S. President has ever tried to pull what Mr. Trump and his followers did after losing the election of 2020. I agree with Vernon that Trump is dangerous and he does not deserve to be President!
Sheldon Worley
Overton
