If you were looking for insight or intelligent analysis of the brutal Minneapolis police killing and its aftermath, television news has disappointed once again.

 

Most of the commentators are either frightened or angry, failing to provide desperately needed perspective. With lightening speed, the unnecessary death of George Floyd quickly became an opportunity for exploitation.  Looters and anarchists stole and destroyed, creating even more human misery.

On TV and social media, anti-Trump people quickly blamed the President, while pro-Trump folks defended him, placing scorn on a hapless Minnesota mayor and street “thugs.”  A word, by the way, that President Obama used to describe looters.

 

Hour after hour, day after day, Americans learned little about the reasons behind a vitally important story.  What readers and viewers did get was reinforcement of their own beliefs, as fallacious as many of them are.