It was 12 years in the past, February 2011, that newly-elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker confronted a deluge of media venom after proposing to curtail public staff’ extravagant taxpayer-funded advantages as half of a bigger plan to rein in general state spending. The nationwide media shortly turned a mouthpiece for left-wing union protests, as reporters smeared Walker as akin to abusive dictators within the Center East, whereas turning a blind eye to the nastiness of the protesters.

The printed networks jumped into the fray after Democratic state legislators fled Wisconsin slightly than lose a vote on Walker’s price range. It was the third day of demonstrations that noticed protesters occupy the state capitol constructing and chant exterior the properties of GOP senators. However as a substitute of decrying this as a threat-to-democracy rebel, enchanted reporters likened the mob to the continuing “Arab Spring” demonstrations in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and different authoritarian states.

And within the media’s telling, it was the conservative Walker who was ripe for being deposed: “From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, persons are rising up. Residents’ uprisings are altering the world,” NBC’s Brian Williams intoned on the February 18, 2011 Nightly Information.

“The photographs from Wisconsin — with its protests, shutdown of some public providers and lacking Democratic senators, who fled the state to dam a vote — evoked the Center East greater than the Midwest,” New York Instances reporters Michael Cooper and Katharine Seelye echoed in an article revealed February 19. “The parallels elevate the inevitable query: Is Wisconsin the Tunisia of collective bargaining rights?”

Ever imaginative, the following morning CBS’s Bob Schieffer cribbed the Instances’ spin as his personal in a query to Paul Ryan on Face the Nation: “Is Madison, Wisconsin, Congressman, the Tunisia of American politics now?”

Over on ABC that very same day, This Week host Christiane Amanpour hit the identical liberal-pleasing be aware however no less than used completely different phrases: “Individuals energy making historical past. A revolt within the Midwest and a revolution sweeping throughout the Center East….Populist frustration is boiling over this week — as we’ve stated, not simply within the Center East, however in the midst of this nation as nicely.”

“What Mr. Walker and his backers try to do is to make Wisconsin — and ultimately, America — much less of a functioning democracy and extra of a third-world-style oligarchy,” New York Instances columnist Paul Krugman railed in his Monday morning column (February 21).

It didn’t matter that Walker had obtained a giant mandate from voters the earlier November to manage state authorities spending and revive the private-sector economic system. “Since when does Scott Walker symbolize the folks?” Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift questioned on the February 26 McLaughlin Group.

It had been solely six weeks for the reason that media made a present of scolding conservatives for the position their rhetoric supposedly had performed within the grave wounding of Democratic Consultant Gabby Giffords (a taking pictures perpetrated by a psychotic unconnected to the Tea Get together or every other political trigger). But community reporters didn’t supply a murmer of disapproval for the nastiness of Wisconsin’s union protesters.

Some indicators depicted Scott Walker as Adolph Hitler; others likened Walker to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (“Scott Stalin”) and just-deposed Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak (“Walker = Mubarak”). One other protest signal drew a cross-hairs over an image of Governor Walker’s head, with the caption “Don’t Retreat, Reload; Repeal Walker.”

On the time, MRC’s Scott Whitlock and I examined all 53 ABC, CBS and NBC morning and night information tales, segments and anchor briefs on the Wisconsin protests from February 17 (once they first drew main nationwide protection) via February 21. We discovered that “whereas eight of the 53 tales (15%) visually displayed a number of of the indicators described above, none elicited a single comment from the community correspondents.”

That week, Massachusetts Democratic Consultant Michael Capuano truly appeared to encourage left-wing violence as he argued: “Each as soon as in awhile you have to get out on the streets and get somewhat bloody.” The networks failed to note this incitement when it occurred, and a Nexis search of the next ten days reveals they by no means bought round to reporting it. (Capuono did, nonetheless, apologize.)

On Sunday, February 27, thugs assaulted Fox Information reporter Mike Tobin and threatened to interrupt his neck. The subsequent morning, The New York Instances pretended as if the protesters had been purely peaceable: “Union leaders say one of many strengths of the demonstrations has been that regardless of harsh language and private assaults directed at Mr. Walker, the protesters had been loud however nonviolent.”

In a uncommon transfer, each MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz had been each slapped with “False” rankings by PolitiFact by perpetuating left-wing falsehoods about Walker’s price range. “Individuals who earn $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a 12 months may need a 20 p.c of their earnings simply disappear in a single day,” Schultz thundered on his MSNBC present February 15.

“There’s no indication it will likely be that top on a large scale, significantly for state employees incomes as a lot as $50,000 per 12 months,” PolitiFact chastised. “If Schultz can present proof of a large-scale 20 p.c affect, we’ll overview this merchandise.” Schultz died in 2018, apparently having by no means equipped the proof to again up his declare; 11 years later, PolitiFact’s “False” ranking stays.

“[MSNBC’s] protection has been partisan and rabble-rousing to the purpose the place it appears as if cable present hosts like Schultz are exploiting the anger of the state of affairs, slightly than reporting the story and making an attempt to deliver context, readability and understanding to a troubled state of affairs,” Baltimore Solar critic David Zurawik, no conservative, derided in a February 18 column.

The protests continued for greater than three weeks, dragging on as a result of Democratic lawmakers had fled the state to create a stalemate within the state senate. However on March 9, Republicans used procedural instruments to lastly move Walker’s price range; the following morning on As we speak, NBC’s Ann Curry referred to as it an “outrage” —  “We flip now to that outrage, you simply heard about in Wisconsin, the place the Republican-controlled senate voted final evening to chop collective bargaining rights for public staff….”

On MSNBC, Morning Joe panelist Donny Deutsch seethed that the Democrats’ weeks-long thuggery and obstructionism had been lastly thwarted: “It is a fascist regime. There’s one thing incorrect right here. Very, very incorrect….I believe the ways, the strategy, the totalitarianism of this doesn’t really feel proper.” But which facet was resorting to mob intimidation to thwart the work of the folks’s elected representatives?

Democrats tried to recall Walker in a particular election, which was ultimately held in June 2012. MSNBC’s Schultz threw every little thing he had at it, internet hosting 237 anti-Walker friends in a three-month interval, vs. only a single visitor who supported the Governor.

Regardless of the unprecedented nationwide media onslaught, Walker gained, prevailing with just about the similar margin as he had when he was first elected in 2010. “This isn’t going to be a simple evening for a lot of broadcasters who’re liberal,” Schultz mournfully advised his viewers the evening of the election. “To say that I’m shocked and shocked is just about an understatement.”

What was really surprising was the brazen partisanship so many within the nationwide media confirmed all through their protection of the complete affair.

For extra examples from our flashback collection, which we name the NewsBusters Time Machine, go right here.