Failure of US journalism

After the widespread diffusion of the video of the assault on George Floyd rioting broke out in US cities  calling for the arrest and charging of the police officers involved. 

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/26/george-floyd-man-dies-after-being-arrested-by-minneapolis-police-fbi-called-to-investigate/

There was considerable expressed surprise that when the demands were met the riots escalated. 

‘The turmoil was on display a short distance from the White House, where President Trump had called earlier in the day for his supporters to rally. Instead, hundreds of protesters mobilized on the streets of the nation’s capital as tensions ratcheted higher.’

Some state responses were overwhelmed:

‘But even as aerial videos from Minneapolis showed police officers largely keeping demonstrators at bay, other cities were being overwhelmed, despite hastily imposed curfews.’

( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/minneapolis-floyd-protests.html )

However journalists appear to deliberately avoid the role of  President Trump’s statement. No consideration was given to the effect of Trumps threat to ‘start shooting’. It is a very strange thing to do to threaten a ‘potential suicide bomber’ with death. Similarly a group of people protesting against being subject to random violence and arbitrary death would be unlikely to respond positively to being threatened with being subject to further random violence and arbitrary death. To have stopped protesting in response to Trump’s threat would have implied a psychological surrender to the current situation of police intimidation. 

Trump has tweeted 31 May:

‘The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn’t do. Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!’

Yet the riots broke out in many cities  Los Angeles, Denver, Columbus, New York , Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Portland, Las Vegas and Des Moines. (Now 75 cities in US and going international – England, Germany, Denmark etc.)

If Trump introduced the National Guard and US military into every one of these cities this would become a national crisis for USA.

He appears to have no understanding of his possible causal role in all this. One does not expect more from President Trump. One would expect much more from US media.