In a move that’s surprising to no one, mainstream media figures are lining up to form a phalanx around California Rep. Maxine Waters after she was caught on camera encouraging rioters to escalate their activities if Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with the murder of George Floyd, got anything less than a first-degree murder charge (a charge that wasn’t even submitted to the jury).

Since then, the country has erupted into a debate surrounding Waters’ actions, with even the judge overseeing the Chauvin trial declaring what she did as abhorrent. These mainstream media figures don’t seem to agree, however, as Fox News notes:

On Monday, “The View” co-host Joy Behar defended Waters.

“I don’t think that Maxine meant anything by that except to say, ‘You have to stick with it, you have to be there,’” Behar said. “But Democrats have to be twice as smart and twice as thoughtful as Republicans. Because Republicans will say whatever they want and they get away with it. Whereas Democrats, one little thing like this and they jump all over her.”

This mimics exactly what Waters said, only without adding their opinion that people who attacked her were signaling the KKK and other white supremacist groups. Both Waters and Behar are projecting, however, and Republicans aren’t nitpicking anything Waters said. What she said was very plain and now they’re trying to downplay it to mean something else. Also, Behar is completely dismissing the fact that Waters said that the rioters need to get more aggressive and that’s hard to misinterpret, especially since these rioters are overtly aggressive as it is.

Next is CNN who published an article declaring Republicans are hypocritical for going after Waters:

CNN’s website published an article claiming Waters’ remarks “drew out the hypocrisy of pro-Donald Trump Republicans over incitement to violence” and expressed disgust that conservatives might use the rhetoric against her.

“Waters, from California, has gifted a narrative to conservative media that pundits can use to distract from the eventual verdict and avoid discussing crucial questions about race and policing in America,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote.

Matthew Dowd, a self-described independent, said on CNN Monday that Republicans complaining about her remarks were hypocrites. The former ABC News commentator and ex-GOP strategist is fond of bromides about bipartisanship while focusing his vitriol on his former party.

“I don’t think what she said in any way we should criticize her for. Of course we should be more confrontational,” Dowd said. “That doesn’t mean we should be more violent … The Republicans seem to me to be on the complete wrong side of history on this.”

Firstly, we can assume the hypocrisy they’re trying to refer to is the Capitol “riot,” which the vast majority of conservatives were against. Many Trump voters opposed the violence. Even Trump himself did. Every Republican elected leader did too. There’s no hypocrisy to speak of here, yet the left has convinced themselves that the riots were unanimously approved.

What’s more, CNN believes the right is attempting to avoid a conversation about race. That’s not true. We’re trying to avoid a conversation about race on their terms because that conversation isn’t a conversation, it’s a list of accusations that allows for little to no defense.

Also, Dowd seems to be forgetting what BLM riots do. By the time many BLM riots are over, there are smoldering ruins (oftentimes of black neighborhoods) that are left behind in the name of “justice.” Waters never differentiated between peaceful aggression and violent aggression, and telling a group that tends to lean toward violent aggression to get more aggressive is poking an already agitated bear. This is common sense and common sense that the left has abandoned in favor of narrative.

CNN’s Don Lemon said about the same.

“While I, as a Black person, can understand her rage and her anger … and I understand that she makes a lot of people uncomfortable … [but] do you really think Maxine Waters is calling for violence?” Lemon asked. “Maxine Waters is not calling for violence. Everyone knows that. She makes a lot of people uncomfortable, especially a lot of men and quite frankly, especially a lot of White men because she puts them in her place. She tells you, ‘Shut up!’ … and she gives it to you like it is!”

Again, she is calling for violence, and once again, Lemon’s racism is coming to the forefront. If we swap the words “white” and “black” in their places then you can bet there’d be trouble.

They even attacked the judge who noted that Waters encouraging rioters to escalate things if a certain verdict isn’t reached was “abhorrent”:

CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell accused the judge of “lashing out,” setting up a CBS News correspondent on the scene to downplay the situation.

“Something extraordinary happened after the jury left to deliberate. The judge lashing out at a U.S. congresswoman. Even mentioning the possibility, a verdict could be overturned in the future,” O’Donnell said before tossing it to reporter Jamie Yuccas.

Yuccas called the judge’s comments “surprising” and stressed the judge “openly told the defense” Waters’ rhetoric could lead to an appeal.

“Her claim that the Judge’s comments on a possible appeal were ‘surprising’ was misleading. And he wasn’t working with the defense either, he was stating the fact that Waters’ comments could be seen as jury intimidation: find him guilty or they burn down the Minneapolis,” NewsBusters analyst Nicholas Fondacaro wrote.

PBS’s leftist correspondent Yamichi Alcindor defended Waters as well, saying that the defense team’s accusations that Waters was threatening violence were untrue, treating it like a “fact check.” She’s half right. Waters didn’t “threaten” it; she called for it.

I want to take this opportunity to remind you that the media isn’t your friend and is not looking out for your best interests. They’re rallying around a woman who called for the continued destruction that the BLM riots bring. That’s the destruction of your property, your town, your business. The destruction of the place you go to get medicine, food, and clothing.

The media should be lambasted for even thinking to defend Waters for what she said. Instead, they’re rallying around her in an attempt to protect her.

The media is just as guilty as she is now.