The Los Angeles Times accused President Donald Trump of racism in its lead story on Tuesday evening in its lead story, whose headline declared: “Trump fills Phoenix with racially charged language.”
However, the Times offered no such examples of racially charged language.
The story itself, by Cathleen Decker, suggested that what was “racially charged” was Trump’s call for “law and order” and his hint at a pardon for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Decker wrote that “even as he sought to dismiss one racially fraught controversy” — Charlottesville — “[Trump] ignited another with words that seemed to promise a pardon to Arpaio.” Arpaio, who was recently held in criminal contempt of court, has been accused of racism for his harsh treatment of illegal aliens and for profiling Latino drivers in traffic stops.
She later added:
Trump’s defense of his own words and his repeated suggestion that it was time to return to law and order carried the whiff of past campaigns, such as those carried out by George Wallace, the late segregationist presidential candidate and governor of Alabama.
Wallace, who had been a Democrat (a fact Decker curiously neglected to mention), was hardly the only politician to have campaigned on a “law and order” platform. Notably, Bill Clinton made those themes part of his successful run for president in 1992.
The Times story remained the lead into Wednesday, but the headline had been toned down on the website. “In charged speech, Trump rails against media and the GOP,” it read, removing the reference to racially charged language from the headline — but not from the article itself.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.