Living in an Illinois county that borders the state of Wisconsin, I have spent many hours of my life in the Badger State, particularly in its southern counties. With its emerald, rolling hills, clear blue-green lakes, and bucolic charm, Wisconsin is a scenic and serene place to escape for a weekend. Many Illinoisans enjoy going to Wisconsin for such activities as camping, fishing, hiking, antique shopping, or visiting the House on the Rock. Just about everyone who lives in any of the Illinois counties along the state line typically visits such towns like Lake Geneva, Delavan, Kenosha, Racine and Beloit, and it is common for folks to live in Illinois and to work in Wisconsin, or vice versa.
For those of us who live in the northern Illinois area, many have an affinity for the people of the state of Wisconsin, unless, of course, it involves a Bears-Packers gameday. And it is this region of the country upon which the media’s attention has been focused for the past couple of weeks. In recent days, the leftist media mob has taken a slight breather from its frenzied full court press against Senators Manchin and Sinema, and has discovered, in the state of Wisconsin, two substitutes for its daily collective rage: the 2020 NFL MVP and a judge from Kenosha County. Both of these individuals really don’t need anyone to jump to their defense, because it is clear that they are both accomplished men, who are comfortable and confident in their own selves and their respective realms – one on a football field, and the other in the courtroom. Each of them likely has a thick skin and is used to some level of criticism.
Even so, it was stunning to watch the left-wing press go after the football player and the judge in recent days. The media mob was in such a mad fury last week concerning the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback’s decision to forgo a COVID-19 vaccine injection, that the story about special prosecutor John Durham’s indictment of Igor Danchenko was negligibly covered in comparison. But, then again, this is what the corporate media, the tech giants, and the Democrat-socialists want, isn’t it? Manufacture outrage. Spin. Deflect. Ignore.
But thankfully, most Americans don’t seem to be buying into the liberal media’s playbook, as demonstrated by CNN’s and the Biden-Harris team’s abysmal ratings. Also, judging from the rousing applause that the quarterback of the Packers received last Sunday, Wisconsinites don’t really care about what some silly liberal columnist in New York writes or what some sports-political pundit on ESPN spouts about Aaron Rogers. Quite frankly, I would conjecture that if Aaron Rodgers were to run for governor in the state of Wisconsin in the future, he would have a fairly decent shot of winning. This notion of Rodgers as Governor would really horrify the leftist media mob!
The media’s lack of connection to the American people outside of its own echo chamber, is also exemplified by its collective insolence toward the judge who presided over the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. The leftist writers and pundits in the media clearly hold the same disdain for Judge Bruce Schroeder as they do for Aaron Rodgers. From demonizing an off-the-cuff lighthearted witticism about lunch plans to attempting to draw some conspiratorial symbolism behind a cellphone ringtone, the media worked around the clock in its effort to cast ignominy upon the Kenosha County judge.
I doubt that most of the legal analysts appearing on television over the past week to criticize the judge have actually even chaired a state court criminal jury trial – either as a defense attorney or as a prosecutor. I have tried numerous felony cases to jury verdict in Illinois. And here’s my two cents: Judge Schroeder impartially and justly fulfilled his duties throughout the entirety of the Rittenhouse trial. For example, barring the prosecution from using the word “victim” during a jury trial is not a ruling that is indicative of any judicial bias against the State. Rather, it is an appropriate judicial safeguard to ensure that the accused is afforded his due process right to a fair trial.
Nor was the judge’s chastising reaction to the prosecutor’s cross-examination of the accused in any way surprising. It was a justifiable response to the astounding decision of the prosecutor to commence his examination of the accused by meandering into the impermissible area of post-arrest silence and then proceeding with an inquiry into a matter that had been the subject of a pre-trial exclusion order. It was the prosecutor who overstepped the bounds of justice, not the judge. Any lawyer who has spent any significant time in a criminal courtroom in a state court system would recognize this. In the words of Judge Schroeder, the media’s coverage was “really quite frightening.”
On a broader level, it is revolting to observe the pattern of systemic viciousness in which the corporate media hones in on a public figure and then engages in bullying and tarnishing its victim. But in an effort to ruin the livelihoods of people with whom it disagrees, the media just keeps effectively destroying its own credibility. At what point does the brazen media mob realize that people who don’t trust a news source stop reading or listening to it altogether?