Because President Obama told them to, the media are currently gearing up to do with “income inequality” what they did with gun control — and that is to fabricate a reality that makes it look as though something no one cares about is a major national priority. The media used this same playbook late last year with the Washington Redskins. But a new poll shows that this fabricated crusade failed as badly as gun control. Only 18% believe the football team should change its name.
In more bad news for the media, the poll was done by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling firm and found that a majority of Democrats, 59%, are fine with the name Redskins. A full 90% of Republicans and 65% of Independents agree.
The pressure put on the Redskins to change their name was nothing more than a parlor game manufactured in the Manhattan-DC corridor between left-wing grievance mongers and their allies in the elite media. What is especially amusing is that no one really believes the media actually care about racial insensitivity or the name of a football team. This is the same media after all that hunted a Hispanic for a full year and have spent just as long looking the other way as the murder rate in Chicago claims hundreds of black lives.
In a very real case of racial insensitivity, though, the media proved it didn’t care what actual American Indians thought about the name Redskins. Even though 90% of Indians are not offended by the name and there are American Indian schools that name their own teams the Redskins, these predominantly white liberals ignored the wishes of millions of American Indians with a patronizing pat on the head. After all, it is the elite media that knows what is best for Indians too “unsophisticated” to take offense at what is obviously meant as an honor.
The name of a football team was really just an opportunity for the elite media to see if they had the power to bend the Redskins to their will and to feel smug and sanctimonious while doing it.
It was also an opportunity for elite media wannabes to “me too” the non-troversy as a way to prove their willingness to join the left-wing collective.
The good news in this poll is that like gun control and the Zimmerman case, what we have here is another example of the media losing its power to shape American opinion.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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