Media top headlines January 31
In media news today, MSNBC deleted a tweet slamming conservatives for favoring affirmative action when it benefits them, a top Democratic lawyer suggests courts revisit a landmark First Amendment case, and Bill Maher rips the left’s silence on ‘goofy s---‘ from their side.
The Washington Post and MSNBC trashed the Canadian truckers participating in the "Freedom Convoy" traveling across the country to protest vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers, as well as the Liberal government's coronavirus restrictions.
The convoy, made up of hundreds of big rig trucks, left Vancouver, British Columbia, on Jan. 23 and traveled to Ottawa on Saturday, where they were joined by thousands of other citizens in protesting against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pandemic policies.
People walk in front of trucks parked on Wellington Street as they join a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
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"It's a cult," declared MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, co-host of the liberal network's flagship morning show "Morning Joe," after co-host Mika Brzezinski painted the protestors as violent vandals and criminals. She noted one report claiming a group of protestors demanded food from an Ottawa soup kitchen for the homeless because they wouldn't wear masks to be able to order food in a restaurant.
"That seems like an interesting way to spend your weekend," Scarborough quipped. "So these anti-vaxxers actually took food from the mouths of the homeless because they're so put upon – I'm just curious, again, where were these protestors when people were required to get five vaccines to start school? Where were these protests when people were required to give their children five vaccines … they were in the doctor's office getting vaccines."
"And they were making fun of left-wingers on the West coast for being loopy anti-vaxxers. Now they have met the enemy, and the enemy – their enemy – is themselves because they've become what they hated. They've become what they mocked," he added, appearing increasingly frustrated. "And now they're taking food from soup kitchens because they're so put upon for being asked to do what they've been asked to do – required to do – their entire lives. It's a cult."
"Yes it is," Brzezinski agreed.
Protesters and supporters against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers cheer as a parade of trucks and vehicles pass through Kakabeka Falls outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (David Jackson/The Canadian Press via AP) ((David Jackson/The Canadian Press via AP)
CANADIAN PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID
Days earlier, The Washington Post's liberal political cartoonist, Michael de Adder tweeted a cartoon depicting a number of truckers driving with the words "fascism" emblazoned on the side of their trucks, referring to those participating in the protests as supporters of the far-right ideology.
CRITICS MOCK ‘PUPPET’ TRUDEAU FOR FLEEING CAPITAL DURING TRUCKERS PROTEST: ‘TYRANT ON THE RUN’
Adder was heavily lampooned by critics for his heavy-handed take, drawing comparisons to a previous incident in which he was fired from a Canadian publisher for a cartoon that went viral on social media. In that piece, he depicted former President Donald Trump mocking the tragic drowning deaths of two illegal immigrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande into the U.S.
On the same day as Adder's tweet, The Post published an op-ed calling on Canada to "confront the toxic ‘Freedom Convoy’ head-on."
It described the convoy as having "an affinity with Trumpist toxic authoritarianist politics."
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Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.