#Problems with Kyle Rittenhouse coverage and other commentary

Iconoclast: Collapsing Media Narratives 

Some mistakes are natural, but “when the sources of news keep getting things wrong, and all the errors lie in the exact same direction, and they are reluctant to acknowledge error, we have a problem,” warns Andrew Sullivan at his Substack. Agenda-driven reporting on the Kenosha shootings “effectively excluded the possibility that [Kyle] Rittenhouse was a naive, dangerous fool . . . who, in the end, shot assailants in self-defense,” so testimony that he did just that “came as a shock.” Add in the collapse of the Steele dossier: Donald Trump “was right, in the end, about the dodgy dossier; he was right about the duped FBI’s original overreach; and the mass media . . . were wrong. And yet the dossier dominated the headlines for three years, and the ‘corrections’ have a fraction of the audience of the errors.” Add in the errors on the lab-leak theory, Jussie Smollett’s fictions and so much more: “All these false narratives just happen to favor the interests of the left and the Democratic Party.” 

Legal expert: Rittenhouse Prosecutors’ Disaster 

“What is most striking about the [Kyle Rittenhouse] trial is that, even more than a year later, prosecutors seem to be learning critical details at the same time as the jury,” Jonathan Turley fumes at The Hill. Testimony described one of those he killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, “as threatening Rittenhouse and others and engaging in random violence;” prosecutors opened the door to the revelation that he “suffered from bipolar disorder.” Gaige Grosskreutz admitted he was shot only after he “pointed his own 9mm handgun at Rittenhouse’s head.” Indeed, “even the prosecution’s medical witness proved beneficial to the defense.” The jurors may now acquit on all counts, “because the credibility of the prosecution is established by the lead charge,” and “if the first-degree charge is wildly out of reach, they are more likely to doubt the lesser charges, too.” 

From the right: Goodbye Blue-Collar Dems 

The “election returns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey clearly established that large segments of blue-collar voters believe the Democratic Party has betrayed their socioeconomic interests,” Charles F. McElwee notes at City Journal. In both states, “Democratic affiliation was once synonymous with economic advancement in working-class communities.” Yet “in South Jersey’s multi-member third legislative district, essentially working-class suburbia, all incumbent Democratic state lawmakers lost,” most prominently state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who was defeated by truck driver Edward Durr. Pennsylvania Dems faced “their own reckoning,” losing a crucial state Supreme Court seat. The blue-collar “embrace of the GOP is a reminder that Democrats can’t rely solely on suburban voters.” 

Foreign desk: Saudi Crown Prince’s Revenge 

The United States may be reaping “the bitter fruits” of President Biden’s threats to punish the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, suggests National Review’s Jim Geraghty. As The Intercept has argued, MBS is “enacting revenge” on Biden “by driving up energy prices and fueling global inflation.” As a candidate, Biden accused the prince of ordering Khashoggi’s murder. The prez has since backed off, but Geraghty fears “MBS holds a grudge.” Biden “followed the tides of emotional, short-term-thinking public opinion” in skewering the Saudi but stood down on realizing the risks. But “just because Joe Biden wants to forget about his campaign-trail rhetoric, it doesn’t mean MBS is willing to forget it.” 

Libertarian: Collusion To Target Parents 

Reason’s Brian Dougherty is outraged that White House officials helped shape the National School Boards Association “domestic terrorism” letter that led to the “public aiming of FBI attention at what is overwhelmingly just parents exercising their rights within the public school system, even if loudly.” Along with news that the FBI has vastly upped its probes of “domestic terrorism,” “the Biden administration’s obsession with treating heated policy disputes, especially from the perceived right, as worthy of federal investigation as potential ‘domestic terror’ is dumb and dangerous to American liberty.” 

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board