If any liberals want a lesson in why conservatives think the news media is biased against them – for about the 1 millionth time – search for Hunter Brittain.
Hunter was a 17-year-old kid from Arkansas.
We say “was” because Hunter is no longer with us.
He was shot and killed on June 23 by Sgt. Michael Davis, a sheriff’s deputy in Lonoke County, Arkansas. Davis somewhat became news over the weekend because his boss, Sheriff John Staley, fired him.
Davis’s sin was not turning on his body cam before shooting Hunter, which violated department policy. It’s unclear yet what prosecutors may say about this case.
But Hunter’s death says more about the media than it does Davis.
(Photo courtesy of Mystic Britain)
The outcome was horrible and tragic.
According to Reason magazine, Hunter, accompanied by a friend, 16-year-old Jordan King, had tried to fix his truck. When he drove away from a body shop around 3 a.m. that morning, Davis pulled him over for what seemed to be a “routine” traffic stop.
Hunter, who was unarmed, got out of the truck and, according to his friend, carried a jug of antifreeze. He was going to use it to block one of his rear tires to prevent the truck, which had lousy brakes, from rolling back into the deputy’s car.
Davis then shot him – for apparently no reason and without any warning to get on the ground or do anything else. As Reason reported, “The deputy just shot him.”
In its coverage, Reason claims the story has “blown up” into a “national news story.”
But there is plenty of reason to doubt this.
Search for Hunter’s name on the websites of the national, mainstream liberal media and you get next to nothing.
NBC News did a report on Hunter, while The Washington Post and ABC News carried stories about Hunter by the Associated Press in Arkansas.
All the other reliably liberal media outlets – The New York Times, CBS News, CNN, and MSNBC – come up empty with searches for Hunter’s name.
Perhaps the issue is obvious.
Hunter is white, as is the deputy. He’s also from rural Trump country.
Now, imagine if a white deputy had shot and killed a 17-year-old black kid without provocation or warning.
All those media outlets would be trampling over each other to offer first-hand reports to explain how racist, horrible, and backward the sheriff’s department, Lonoke County, and Arkansas itself are.
And they would be encouraging protesters to take to the streets to demand “no justice, no peace” until Sgt. Davis was behind bars.
But Hunter is an afterthought if the media have thought about him at all, because he literally blows up their narrative about America and policing.
His death proves that cops do in fact shoot and kill unarmed white people – in fact, most people killed by police are white – including unarmed young white men.
Yet why should our media let facts get in the way of a not-so-good yarn?
If you have not heard of Hunter before now, don’t worry. You’re not alone. He is not exactly a household name, thanks to our national media.
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