It's not uncommon in this line of work to say that the legacy media "beclowns" itself. But the latest offering from MSNBC is such a horrifically tone-deaf, unbelievably narcissistic exercise in left-wing talking points that the network deserves no quarter. There are differences of opinion, and there is propaganda.
On Thursday, José Ibarra was found guilty on all counts in the rape and murder of Laken Riley. Ibarra was no dreamer nor one of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. He did not come to the United States to find a better life. He is a member of the vicious, bloodthirsty Tren de Aragua gang and a violent predator. The evidence against him was overwhelming and included DNA and fingerprints.
Exhibiting zero compassion or decency, let alone common sense, MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos had the unmitigated gall to pen a column for the network's site titled “The Guilt of Laken Riley’s Killer Was Never in Doubt.” The original title was “Laken Riley’s Killer Never Stood a Chance.”
Oh, what fresh hell is this? What line of unmitigated propaganda do these people expect us to swallow? What ham-fisted, self-righteous attempt at left-wing empathy have we here?
The link to the original piece was inaccessible for a little while, likely because whatever adults remaining at MSNBC realized that one of their people had once again defecated and fallen in it, so some time was needed to massage it. I will leave it up to PJ's internet sleuths to see if there is a recoverable original version. Here are some excerpts from the current iteration:
Riley’s murder became a political rallying cry at this summer’s Republican National Convention because Ibarra entered the country illegally in 2022. But for all the political controversy, the outcome of this trial was never in doubt.
The verdict was going to be guilty.
The sentence was going to be life without parole.
Generally, defense attorneys prefer jury trials to bench trials. One reason is math. For the defense, this was a hopeless case. The defense did the best it could with bad facts. It almost surely knew it was going to lose.
....
Of course, in Ibarra’s case, the judge cut him no breaks — jury or no jury. In fairness, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who presided over the trial, didn’t have that much to decide. Normally, judges have a lot of sentencing options. Criminal statutes often provide for a mandatory minimum or a statutory maximum sentence, leaving a lot in between. For example, when FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of masterminding a massive fraud last November, federal prosecutors asked the judge to sentence “SBF” to 100 years in prison. His defense argued for 6½ years. It’s often a challenge for a judge to determine what is an appropriate sentence while considering minimum sentences, maximum sentences and sentencing guidelines. (Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence.)
Not in this case.
Cevallos came close to redemption with this conclusion:
Sometimes defense counsel just gets handed a truly awful, unwinnable case. The defense’s choice of a bench trial not only saved the state the resources of a wasted jury trial; it also likely avoided unnecessarily prolonging this traumatic experience for the victim’s family.
Cevallos may have been trying to recover from what was originally a heartless headline. Of course, we may never know how many revisions the piece underwent to tone it down. He also gives a cursory nod to “the heartrending testimony of Riley’s loved ones.”
This was not an incident of an "unwinnable case." This was an issue of bringing a hardened, soulless criminal to justice. Of course, for many on the Left, the murder of Laken Riley is an uncomfortable reminder of the current administration's self-serving and barbaric approach to border security. It is a small wonder that it would rather focus on the legal proceedings than wrestle with whatever remains of its collective conscience. Better to try to shift the attention to the legal system than cope with the reality that we have no control over who crosses our border — and the inherent potential for disaster.
Donald Trump Jr. said what most people were thinking in response to Cevallos' blatant, self-serving, and frankly wicked exercise in heartless CRT:
You literally can’t make up this level of depravity. These people are sick. The guy is a murderer. He’s an illegal alien that killed an innocent young woman but MSNBC would rather go to bat for him.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 22, 2024
However, much you hate MSNBC it’s not enough! pic.twitter.com/3YSVmbbVBD
José Ibarra deserves no empathy, no pity, and no sympathy. He is a feral animal who not only murdered a young woman with a bright future but devastated an entire family. The only people with whom such a monster could find succor are those so resolute in their hatred of a president and his supporters that they care nothing for the shedding of innocent blood.
MSNBC is in free fall, and to be honest, the best thing that could happen is for the network to be fire-sold with its denizens scattered to the four winds and forced to seek honest work. Either the reporters and writers have become such dead-eyed, slack-jawed, drool-faced acolytes of progressivism that they are hopelessly mired in their hatred for all things that lean right in any way that they cannot summon one ounce of compassion for Laken, her family, or anyone else who has suffered from crimes at the hands of illegals — or they are evil. And that is a possibility that cannot be ignored. Whatever the case, there is one thing that should come to mind when regarding the legacy media: Carthago delenda est.
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