CNN @BrookeBCNN: Veterans causing the Baltimore riots

By streiff | 11:00 AM on April 29, 2015

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One of the tropes following most of America’s wars has been the maladjusted, drug addicted, pathological and violence prone veteran. While many associate that image with many films involving Vietnam (for instance, Rolling Thunder, any of the Rambo films) actually the image is quite old. Crime reports and popular literature following the Civil War featured opium addicted war veterans, war veterans who were emotionally damaged, and veterans who were violent. Now the media is attempting to repeat the same pattern in the aftermath of Obama’s lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We’ve seen veterans pitied as homeless and suicide prone. Now we discover they are the cause of the violence in Baltimore. Via CNN’s Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN):

“I love our nation’s veterans, but some of them are coming back from war, they don’t know the communities, and they are ready to do battle.”

This is gibberish on so many levels. The odds of any veteran, much less one not from Baltimore, seeking to live in the areas involved in the rioting is small. The simple reason is that the areas that are rioting don’t enlist in the Armed Forces in any measurable quantity. So who is “coming back from the war” and doesn’t “know the communities” is unclear.

Since then she has tried to walk the comment back. First was the de rigueur “some of my best friends are veterans” (Anyone heard that one before?) with a side of “I’m just repeating inane bullsh** that I’ve heard:

Folks. Please don’t misunderstand me. Dear friends/family of mine are veterans. I was repeating a concern vocalized to me lately. That’s it.

— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) April 28, 2015

It was followed up by “I’m sorry if you were offended”:

I am sorry for what I said earlier about veterans. It was wrong and I apologize to anyone who was hurt by my comments.

— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) April 28, 2015

This is simply typical of a media that looks upon the military as an exotic species. Something to be infantilized and studied and, yes, pitied. The fact is that most veterans, the overwhelming majority of them, are well adjusted, gainfully employed and doing well.

The only upside to this is more people will read about Baldwin on RedState than viewed her report.