Whether you believe the country is in the grip of an
explosion of violence significantly depends on what media you listen to
Mayors across the
United States have rejected Donald Trump’s election-season depiction of their cities as awash in violence, and media coverage of peaceful
protests in Portland and elsewhere has belied the president’s claims of widespread “anarchy”.
But for Americans who mainly consume conservative media, Trump’s latest evocation of an “American carnage”, with “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence” is as plain as the news flashing across the screen.