More people awaken every day to the fact that the establishment media news outlets aren’t really news outlets at all, but propaganda arms for the hard left. Still, few are aware of the deceitful tactics they use on a regular basis to push public opinion in the direction they want it to go. A recent case of attempted vehicular homicide shows how they do it.
The venerable French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) ran this headline Saturday: “Woman jailed over car-chase with Norway anti-Islam activist.” The manipulation begins in the headline itself. Those who are unaware of the incident that AFP is talking about might get the impression that this was a story about speeding, or maybe even about racing in the streets, or else that the evil “anti-Islam activist” (note also: his activism is presented as his being against something, rather than for something, an honor the media reserves only for those with whom it agrees) was chasing down this woman, no doubt with some terrible and likely misogynistic right-wing intent, but that she ended up being the one who got punished.
Then the first sentence of the article dispels that false impression, but creates some new ones. “A Norwegian court,” it says, “has jailed for 19 months a woman who chased and then rammed a vehicle carrying an anti-Islam extremist who had just burned a Koran.”
Okay, so the person who chased and rammed the car is described as a “woman,” and this description is repeated as the story goes on. That’s it. A “woman.” Then, opposing this “woman” is a man who stood up for the freedom of expression at risk of life and limb, and for doing so, is called an “extremist.” The “extremist” was not the person who caused an accident trying to harm someone who had defended the right to dissent, but was, rather, the defender of the right to dissent.
AFP goes even further later on in the article, calling others who have likewise stood up for the freedom of expression “militants,” as if they were toting Kalashnikovs and holding non-Qur’an-burners hostage. Remember also that “extremists” and “militants” are common euphemisms the establishment media uses for terrorists. At the time this attack took place in July 2022, the French publication Le Progrès demonstrated the same bias, headlining its article “Un extrémiste anti-islam percuté en voiture après avoir brûlé un Coran,” that is, “An anti-Islam extremist hit in car after burning Quran.”
The facts, which are quite distinct from the impression that AFP wants to give you, is that these people aren’t remotely “extremist.” They aren’t carrying anything more lethal than a book of matches with which to light the Qur’an, which they do not out of hatred of Muslims or desire to do them harm, but because they object to the book’s violence, hatred of unbelievers, misogyny and more, and believe that Western countries are treading a dangerous path by restricting the freedom of expression in order to appease Muslims who are enraged by the burning of the Qur’an.
AFP notes that the “woman” who attempted vehicular homicide “was found guilty of an attempt to inflict serious bodily harm.” Then it immediately reminds us that the person she was trying to harm was an “extremist”: “The incident happened minutes after Lars Thoren, head of the Stop The Islamisation of Norway group, had burned a copy of the Koran outside a mosque in the Oslo suburbs.” For this, “two women in a grey Mercedes went after him in a pursuit that was filmed and posted on social media.”
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When they caught up with Thoren, they attacked: “Thoren’s sports utility truck was rammed and turned over onto its roof but none of the five occupants were seriously hurt.” Thoren, AFP is careful to remind us, “is among a group of militants in Scandinavian countries, also including Rasmus Paludan, who have caused anger by burning copies of the Koran in Muslim districts of major cities.” And not only there: “While presented as an expression of freedom of speech, governments in Muslim majority countries have protested the burnings.”
Does the fact that Muslim governments have protested the burnings mean that the burnings are no longer an expression of freedom of speech? The Muslim governments’ outrage trumps the freedom of expression?
All this is designed to get you to hate those who stood up for the freedom of expression, and even to applaud an attempt at vehicular homicide. And AFP isn’t even close to being the worst establishment media outlet. Propaganda of this kind is pumped out by the gallon from every media outlet, every day. It’s no wonder that the American people, and the people of the West in general, are so often ready to support people and causes that are directly opposed to their best interests.