Is the fatal shooting of a patriot rally participant a manifestation of the growing belief among some in the media that conservative Americans are evil hate mongers who should be feared and villainized?
We’re putting the question politely, because much of the public reaction to the tragic shooting involving a security guard hired by 9News has been angry and unforgiving.
Worst of all, the public doesn’t seem to be surprised.
One need only look at the responses to articles posted on the news station’s social media pages. It’s brutal.
It’s not surprising to see so much public mistrust of 9News.
Just look at Exhibit A — Kyle Clark — who doesn’t even bother to pretend he’s objective.
It’s tragically ironic that Clark actually mocked people for being afraid to go downtown and inferred one must be racist if they don’t embrace certain protesters.
Shame to think there are people cowering in the suburbs, cleaning their guns, peeking through the blinds wondering if every person of color outside is Antifa. If you’re afraid to come into Denver because of talk radio fear-mongering, you’re missing out on a lot. https://t.co/wEJJ7dFBSO
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) September 27, 2020
Even the station’s weatherman, Marty Coniglio, couldn’t conceal his bias.
Coniglio was let go in July after comparing federal law enforcement officers protecting federal property to Nazis.
Is there a culture in the KUSA newsroom of conservative intolerance that extends from their beliefs to their reporting, to the point where they fear anyone with an opinion different from their own?
Just look at this video compiled by 9News of the moments leading up to the shooting death of 49-year-old Lee Keltner, plus a brief clip afterwards.
Decide for yourself whether Keltner was defending himself against a counter-protestor, telling him to clam down, warning the counter-protestor a cop was coming up right behind them, then spotting a photographer and the 9News producer photographing him.
Keltner was clearly holding a can of mace. It sounds like Keltner threatened to “f*ck up” the photographers if they didn’t stop photographing and videotaping him.
That’s when if appears 30-year-old Matthew Dolloff steps in between them.
Warning: This video contains graphic content.
Here’s the actual shooting. WARNING: this video contains very graphic content.
Records show you murdered a innocent man pic.twitter.com/n07Kgxw2YP
— Deplorable (@LibraZF) October 12, 2020
“He maced him so that’s when he shot him,” the 9News producer tells police.
“That guy just saved my f*cking life, you know that right?” the producer says.
That’s a lot to unpack.
In a statement from 9News, the station insists they did not know or authorize the guard to be armed.
However, the news producer does not sound surprised his guard was carrying a gun. Of course we didn’t hear the whole tape, just what 9News was willing to share.
The producer also says the guard saved his life.
Yet police have used pepper spray to disperse crowds in the metro area during other protests this summer. Hell, protestors throw pepper spray devices back at the cops.
Was the producer really afraid the mace would fatally injure him, or that Keltner’s face slap to the guard somehow endangered the producer?
Or is the producer just scared of conservatives? Maybe he’s been convinced by the constant chants from “peaceful protestors” he and other reporters have covered since May that every white person who does not march and riot with socialists, communists, antifa or BLM is a racist and member of the KKK.
When the media repeatedly shows favorable coverage of “peaceful protests” that turn violent, yet villainize counter-protestors, it’s no wonder Coloradans are so quick to judge 9News.