Suspect in deadly hit-and-run incident in North Dakota blames politics
Correspondent Matt Finn reports the latest on the investigation into the killing of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson.
The liberal media has long decried the threat of violent right-wing extremism, but when the violence allegedly targets the right, news organizations largely turn a blind eye.
Eighteen-year-old North Dakotan Cayler Ellingson was allegedly targeted and killed by drunken 41-year-old motorist Shannon Brandt following a "political argument," according to court documents that revealed Brandt's account of what transpired.
Brandt, who initially fled the scene after hitting the teen with his SUV, told police that Ellingson had belonged to a "Republican extremist group." Brandt was released on $50,000 bond.
None of the five major news networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC – have offered any on-air coverage to the attack on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Grabien transcripts.
"Mainstream media network bias shows up not only in what they cover and how they cover it, but what they ignore," Cornell law professor and media critic William Jacobson told Fox News Digital. "The test in most of these cases is to contrast how it would have been covered if the roles were reversed. Here, if a 'right wing' driver had deliberately run down a 'liberal' student, there would be round-the-clock coverage, and we would be having a national conversation about domestic terrorism. But because it was a perceived conservative teen who was killed, the story is mostly ignored."
North Dakota man who ran down 'Republican' teen says he doesn't want his own life, job jeopardized (Foster County Sheriff, Facebook)
Neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post had their reporters cover the incident either, according to search results, although the Washington Post re-printed an Associated Press story on the subject.
The AP report about the attack on Ellingston omitted the key detail about Brandt accusing the teen of being a "Republican extremist." CBS News shared the AP report on its website.
Seattle-based KTTH radio host Jason Rantz insisted if Brandt had been wearing a MAGA hat and Ellingston had a BLM t-shirt, "not only would it lead every cable news network and major paper in the country… Joe Biden would give a speech about MAGA Republicans being a White supremacist threat."
"Ultimately, there’s a lot more details we need. The political argument claim needs to be corroborated… But just on what’s been reported so far, we know that if the ideologies were reversed, every outlet in the country would frame this as a MAGA assault against a BLM activist," Rantz told Fox News Digital.
"We saw this with Waukesha among other incidents where stories get attention before being quickly put out to pasture," NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News. "In this case, we had something even worse with no TV coverage. And in the scant attention online, the Associated Press took the cowardly route and avoided the entire alleged motive for the crime. Not only was this a partisan move to ignore the fact that a young boy was killed for simply being conservative, but a paltry excuse for journalism."
Photo shows mugshot for Shannon Brandt, the man who admitted to hitting an 18-year-old with his car after the pair had a "political dispute." Outset image shows partially redacted court records (Stutsman County Corrections/Court records)
Prominent outlets took a similar approach to the recent murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German.
Earlier this month, Democratic Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was arrested for the fatal stabbing of the journalist, who had previously exposed scandals that plagued Telles, including a hostile work environment and an extramarital affair with a staffer. That led to Telles' defeat during a Democratic primary held in June.
While the liberal networks covered German's horrific murder, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC omitted Telles' political affiliation, referring to him as a "local politician" or "public official."
A booking photo of Robert Telles, left, and the veteran Las Vegas-Review reporter, Jeff German. Telles, a Democratic elected official, is charged with fatally stabbing German over stories that had ruined his career and marriage, according to prosecutors. (LVMPD/AP)
Buried in the 34th paragraph of NBC News' online article is the admission that Telles "was narrowly edged out in the Democratic primary." It was also the second-to-last paragraph of the report.
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Additionally, three out of four CNN programs that covered Telles' arrest early Thursday morning avoided his party affiliation. Only "New Day" acknowledged the suspected murderer is a "Democratic politician" before the network went wall-to-wall covering the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
CNN previously acknowledged on Wednesday's "The Lead" that Telles lost his Democratic primary while reporting on the prior search warrant against him.