One of the great conservative thinkers of our time (or any time for that matter) is Thomas Sowell. He has been dishing out dimes of wisdom for decades, and though he is getting on in years he is still quite capable of breaking down the current status of geopolitics, economics, and cultural differences.

In other words, he’s the left’s greatest nightmare.

On the topic of fake news, which is near and dear to our hearts as a news outlet opposed to the machinations of mainstream media, Sowell breaks it down into a few simple choices. Either people in the media do their jobs or announce that they’ve stopped doing their jobs, in which case it’s up to the people to be discerning.

“If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.”

(Please note that we are not using the perpetrator’s name to keep the focus on the heroes who stopped this potential tragedy)

The liberty grabbers on the left usually jump at a chance to demonize the 2nd Amendment. Why not in this case?

Three staff members of Smith High School in Greensboro, North Carolina stopped a potential tragedy on Monday by quickly locking down the school and arresting the perpetrator.

The first to intervene was Patrick Jordan, a Behavioral Intervention Specialist who works at the school. He noticed someone who did not “fit in” walking past in the courtyard. Jordan then approached the man to ask why he was there, and after a short exchange the individual raised his shirt to show a handgun. Assistant Principal, Lashonti Hines, also noticed the gun. Hines and Jordan immediately called for a lock down. The criminal ran and was arrested after being tased by school Resource Officer, D.K. Evans.

The perpetrator had previously assaulted his girlfriend in Virginia Beach Monday morning before allegedly stealing the victim’s car to drive to the School in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The man had a backpack with two loaded handguns and eight boxes of ammunition. It was reported in the ‘Sacramento Bee‘ that the man had a “hit list” with plans to kill a woman and her parents in Durham, and then move on to Smith High School in Greensboro to kill two people. He then planned to drive to Maryland and kill one more person.

Why wasn’t this a major news story?

This potential mass murder in a school and elsewhere took place several days ago. While it did receive some perfunctory notice by some local and national news sources, it was quickly glossed over in favor of other stories. Why?

Several reasons can be gleaned from the accompanying video on the hero who stopped this tragedy. Suffice it to say that the ethnicity of the perpetrator, as well as the victims, did not fit the usual narrative. The featured video also had one of the heroes referring to that which is generally taboo with secular socialist television.

The primary difference between this case and others is that the perpetrator didn’t succeed. There were no images or video of children fleeing for their lives from the scene, and a decided lack of relatives of the victims emoting on-screen demanding for restrictions on freedom.

Colleague, Lorie Wimble, noticed a similar pattern with regard to a rape allegation by Katie Brennan, in which a political inconvenient story ends up getting buried in the news cycle. In this environment it’s mind-boggling that the media doesn’t understand why they are no longer trusted. It’s equally perplexing that they don’t understand that their bias is manifestly obvious.

A lost opportunity to demonize liberty

Compare the coverage of this potential “serious crisis” with one that is ripe for exploitation by the freedom floggers. Wall-to-wall coverage would soon be initiated after word of an exploitable tragedy coming in over the optic fiber (followed by the usual admonitions about our issue with liberty and how we must now restrict freedom) then, somber denizens of the nation’s Socialist left will pontificate on the dire need to control personal property, as well as everyone’s online speech.

One can easily imagine the gatherings of excited leftists in “news” rooms around the nation hoping for another chance to further their gun confiscation agenda, only to be disappointed that the obvious solution of armed school security saving the day. The sheer letdown for them, in the midst of their writing up of tweets with the hashtag #GunReformNow (meaning #GunConfiscationNow), when the news breaks that ordinary citizens stopped evil dead in it’s tracks.

Killing off the contagion

Studies show that over-the-top media coverage and making perpetrators “anti-heroes” tends to encourage copycat crimes. Even far-left publication ‘Mother Jones’ recognizes this problem. It’s also logical that publicizing the failure of one of these murderous miscreants would discourage this behavior in others with similar ideas.

Those planning these crimes go through five distinct planning phases. Seeing that someone was thwarted by an armed response may end the fantasy of an active shooter once and for all.

The takeaway

Truly common sense measures, such as eliminating so-called ‘Gun-Free’ zones and freeing people to carry concealed weapons, would dramatically reduce if not eliminate these tragedies. But for some, security is more important than essential liberty. Perhaps that is why they oppose the common sense solutions.

Katie Brennan claims she was raped. She reported the incident to the police. After their investigation, they said there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest and convict her alleged rapist. Undaunted, Brennan worked her way up the ladder until finally calling on Governor Phil Murphy himself, a man she volunteered for in his election campaign, to meet with her and discuss the alleged rapist on his payroll.

Unfortunately for Brennan, the chief of staff at the state’s housing agency and a former volunteer for the governor’s campaign, she was accusing a powerful Democrat in deep-blue New Jersey. There was little chance she was going to be heard by anyone in public office, so she did what she hoped wouldn’t be necessary. She contacted the press.

Now, she faces skepticism from many people who have claimed the #MeToo mantle as their own. It caught her by surprise. In her public hearing yesterday, she told the story from the time of the alleged rape all the way through to now.

“I thought if any administration could make progressive reforms, it would be this one,” Brennan said during her testimony.

She has every right to be baffled by the way she has been treated, even recently. The attorney general found no wrongdoing by the district attorney who turned her away and refused to file charges against her alleged rapist, Al Alvarez. How they came to that conclusion without even attempting to interview Brennan herself is unfathomable.

Putting together the pieces, it’s starting to make more sense. The last thing any Democratic lawmaker in the state of New Jersey wants is for their boss to be seen as ignoring a sexual assault allegation against one of his top staffers made by a former campaign volunteer.

My Take

This is purely political, 100%. I was shocked it wasn’t getting national attention back in October when the WSJ article first dropped.

As I did in October, I waited a day before writing about this because I assumed, surely this time leftist mainstream media could no longer ignore this story. Searches for “Katie Brennan” on Google News today reveal it’s still essential only being covered by local press. The networks aren’t picking it up. Outlets like the NY Times and WaPo aren’t picking it up. The Wall Street Journal continues to cover it, but Politico is the only major left-leaning outlet to even mention Katie Brennan.

It’s an extremely credible story of a woman allegedly raped by a powerful man protected by his cohorts in government. If it was a Republican rapist protected by a Republican governor, this would be huge. Instead, media is sweeping it under the rug.