Updated

Editor's note: The following column first appeared in The Washington Times.

The left works overtime to control everyone’s sense of reality. They have lost the hearts and minds of Americans so all they can do now is arrange various public Kabuki dramas insisting that America (and Americans by default) are no good and not worth standing for.

For a media that remain pathologically fixated on their hatred for the president, having to cover other news is anathema to them. Who knows, events they could cover might help President Trump; or if they stop attacking him for a few days people might have a moment to consider the president without him being slathered in media crazy sauce.

So, as Mr. Trump received praise for guiding the nation through hurricanes, which played a part in his approval ratings rise, it’s no surprise the left lurched forward and decided more racial division and complaining about America were necessary.

“Taking a knee” has become the new “Hands up, don’t shoot” scenario for liberal activists. As their hero Hillary Clinton wanders around the country continuing her “Tour J’accuse,” major league football players decided to kneel (again) during Sunday’s football games.

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the “protest,” the fact of the matter is, it wasn’t much of a protest at all. The Daily Caller reports only 12 percent of NFL players sat or kneeled during the anthem. That’s the story, but one you won’t hear from the legacy media.

A scramble to smear the president is all this is. They choose to cover the contrived NFL protest about inequality, but where are they covering another weekend of bloodshed in Chicago? Forty people were shot this past weekend in Chicago, with 12 fatalities.

USA Today reports: “The statistics join those that have been building up in recent years in the Midwestern city, which recently experienced its most violent month in more than 20 years. Chicago recorded 92 murders in August, its deadliest month since June 1993. The city has reported more than 100 more murders this year than New York City and Los Angeles combined, according to the department’s data.”

The police chief notes that 90 percent of those killed were associated with gangs. I guess the other 10 percent are just collateral damage? This is a city whose mayor recently “banned” Mr. Trump because of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) decision. Perhaps Mayor Rahm Emanuel should ban gangs, or at least cease being a sanctuary city.

The media always ignore the river of blood that engulfs Chicago, because looking at it does not advance the liberal agenda. Like other facts of urban life, it indicts liberalism for dooming those under its bloody boot.

Then there was a mass shooting at a Christian church in Antioch, Tennessee. The horror happened on Sunday. The media hasn’t really been interested in the murdered woman and seven seriously injured because they had their multimillionaire football players kneeling and complaining about Mr. Trump.

You know, there’s only so much room in a reporter’s head, right?

But there is another problem with the Antioch church shooting, as with the constant massacres in Chicago: The facts in Antioch aren’t the right kind of facts that benefit the liberal agenda, so down the memory hole it goes.

The shooter is Emanuel Kidega Samson, originally described by police as African-American, but is an immigrant from the Sudan. During the shooting, he was tackled and stopped by Robert Engle, a heroic church usher. Mr. Engle then retrieved his own legally owned firearm and held the attempted mass murderer at bay until the police arrived.

For the left and the legacy media the optics of this are just bad, bad, bad. A Sudanese migrant, stopped by a man with a concealed carry permit. While all the victims appear to be white, it’s unclear what element of the crime has compelled the Department of Justice to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

For one moment the media did turn their heads, when they thought they could construct Mr. Trump’s Katrina: Puerto Rico!

Various reporters and celebrities were shocked, just shocked when they imagined Mr. Trump had totally forgotten about the crisis in hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico. After all, the president was only tweeting about the kneeling controversy. His lack of tweets about Puerto Rico proved he had completely forgotten about them! Viola, Mr. Trump’s Katrina!

Yeah, no. Mr. Trump doesn’t govern via Twitter, even though the social media platform appears to be the only connection to reality for legacy media and Hollywood.

The military, Coast Guard and National Guard were all dispatched and working on the island. Stars and Stripes reported on the multiple missions being conducted by the military for both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ranging from search and rescue, to constructing communications centers, clearance operations, medical rescue, the distribution of water and goods across the islands, the federal response has been praised by Puerto Rican officials, including Gov. Ricardo Rossello.

These serious, existential events were ignored or lied about by the legacy media. People say Mr. Trump will “win” any fight with the NFL, and that the kneeling controversy will backfire. No doubt the free market will send a message of rejection to the NFL. But there’s another loser in the chaotic contrivances of the left — the media and their complete loss of any objectivity and interest in actual news.