Shinzo Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister when he was killed by a killer's shotgun blast while giving a political speech. Left-wing NPR described the murdered Abe as an "ultranationalist" and a "divisive arch-conservative." Perhaps drawing from the same source, The Associated Press used the exact same terms.
Over at CBS News, foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer pulled out the “right-wing” label.
“A polarizing figure, [Abe] was a right-wing nationalist and conservative, and a fierce supporter of Japan's military,” Palmer told the audience. “While in office, Abe met former President Donald Trump several times.”
Yep, there it is: The slain national leader put his country first and was a friend of Trump.
In reality, Abe was admired by the Japanese after he defended the nation against hated bullying neighbor China. He was forced to step down in 2020 for health reasons, not for some political scandal, and he remained a force in national politics up until his death.
Scott Whitlock of Media Research Center says Abe could have cured cancer but if he was friends with Trump, the gloves come off.
“They simply see Abe as someone who's friendly with Trump,” Whitlock observes, “and I think that was really enough for them to really go after him.”
It is no secret the national media despised then-President Trump and still does today. Owing to that hatred, there is an ongoing effort by that same media to isolate and punish Trump administration officials, and Republican lawmakers, who have not turned against him. But the media's contempt shown to a little-known foreign leader, now dead, is something to behold.
According to a Newsbusters article, Palmer ripped Abe in her news story for CBS but she has a documented history of praising the murderous regime in Iran, including Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. under Trump.
“They go so easy on people like terrorists or Fidel Castro when they die,” Whitlock says, “but God forbid you be a conservative or someone insufficiently liberal, because you get the worst kind of press when you pass away.”
Yet another related issue is guns and crime, since Japan has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world which the U.S. media naturally wants to emulate here.
Mike Hammond, of Gun Owners of America, tells AFN the media is definitely pushing for similar gun restrictions in the U.S. but that means ignoring the assassination occurred in a country with tight laws.
Those gun laws didn’t do any good, he says, “except guarantee to these mass shooters that no one else was going to fire back.”
