I have continually been horrified by how American media equivocates between our two major parties. Their fear of being labeled “too liberal” has caused them to overcorrect and perpetuate conservative talking points in the name of fair representation. This terrible practice has come to the forefront with the coverage of protests over racial injustice.

Jacob Blake was added to the long, solemn list of Black Americans who have experienced violence at the hands of the police after being shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Just a few months after the brutal murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed, this shooting made it clear that nothing had changed.

The public demonstrations that have sprung up have been almost entirely peaceful. There has been, understandably, violence in the cities where this oppression is most prevalent. Counter protestors have since taken arms, many with the sole purpose of wreaking havoc and causing destruction.

This led news outlets to cover both sides of the protests as equal. Events were reported like both right-wing radicals and antifa — an organization that does not, in fact, exist — are destroying American cities. And when a white supremacist teenager drove to another state and decided to execute two people, the news treated it as an expected escalation of violence that was already occurring and not senseless murders.

However, it was conservative media that took it even farther. In the last four years, the Republican Party has shown its propensity to allow immorality to go unchecked if it is politically expedient. This case was no different.

“I want him as my president,” tweeted conservative commentator Ann Coulter, referencing the shooter.

Tucker Carlson also praised the killer, saying, “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

  It is one thing when right-wing hacks praise a white supremacist terrorist, but it is another when Republican politicians echo their praises. A GOP Congressman lauded the boy for showing “incredible restraint.” The president laid the cherry on top, however, when he refused to condemn him.

The Republican Party does not care when Americans are murdered on the streets so long as they are Democrats or minorities. They cry out against antifa assassins but allow this kind of violence to foment — Joe Biden has never praised any left-wing radical that insights violence and has repeatedly called for peaceful protests.

When Donald Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” he was right. If anything, his supporters would be chanting, “Four More Years!”