Flying The Alito Flag

The Media Research Center rushed to the defense of right-wing Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito after he was caught flying an upside-down American flag outside his house.

Right-wing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito got busted flying an upside-down flag outside his house just after the Capitol riot, which means it was time for the Media Research Center to play defense for him once again with a lot of distraction and deflection. Curtis Houck, led the defend-and-distract brigade in a May 17 post:

ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA) and NBC’s Today eagerly touted in faux serious tones early Friday a new front in the left’s war to delegitimize, shame, and even attempt to remove conservative judges as The New York Times published a screeching story about an upside down flag flying at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021.

Liberal journalist Jodi Kantor typed this up on behalf of the liberal Borg and even appeared in the GMA segment, arguing Alito signed with the flag he’s a far-right conspiracy theorist.

“We turn now to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito under fire after The New York Times published a picture of an upside down flag flown outside his home in 2021 just days after the January 6 riot,” fill-in co-host Rebecca Jarvis began.

Longtime Supreme Court correspondent Terry Moran was in need of a fainting couch as he huffed Alito’s been “no stranger to controversy” with this new story “stunning and unprecedented”.

“Flying the flag upside down is meant to be a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger, according to the U.S. flag code. It’s also been used as a symbol of protest…and, after the 2020 election, some of Donald Trump supporters adopted the upside down flag to object to Biden’s victory,” he added.

Moran also pointed to Kantor having obtained e-mails from fellow leftist quacks — aka Alito’s neighbors — whining “the flag was flying for multiple days” and were concerned about this “political statement”.

Houck did not explain how a newspaper story could be “screeching” given that paper and text typically don’t make any sound at all, nor did he provide evidence for how he know every single one of Alito’s neighbors are “leftist quacks.”

Houck then assumed that the neighbors deserved to have that flag flown in their face: “What signs did Alito’s neighbors have? To what degree did they harass the Alitos? Heck, what’s the political stance of Alito’s neighborhood? And does Brett Kavanaugh and the man who wanted to assassinate him and his family Nicholas Roske jog your memories?” Houck offered no evidence that any Alito neighbor was planning to assassinate him.

Houck concluded by bestowing victimhood on Alito:

Like with Justice Clarence Thomas, the liberal media will stop at nothing to either force out or remove Alito, Thomas, and any other jurist who doesn’t kowtow to a certain ideology. As we’ve seen when leftist freaks have plopped themselves outside the homes of right-leaning justice, the liberal media have little regard for the children, spouses, and loved ones of the justices.

You mean like the regard the MRC has for Hunter Biden?

Nicholas Fondacaro turned his daily hate-watch of “The View” into an aggressive defense of Alito:

Joy Behar, the same co-host of ABC’s The View who thought the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the military alliance that defeated Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, was back with more of her wisdom during Friday’s show. According to her, two elements of the U.S. Constitution – both present since the founding – were “un-American.”

“These lifetime assignments [to the U.S. Supreme Court] have got to stop and they need to fix the Electoral College also because that’s un-American,” she shrieked.

Behar was triggered by newly released, years-old photos of an inverted American flag allegedly outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito several days AFTER the riot at the Capitol. The latest smear campaign against conservative justices suggested – without evidence – that it was to show solidarity with the rioters.

Ignoring or ignorant of the meaning of an inverted flag, Behar declared it was something wholly invented by “MAGA people”:

[…]

Faux-conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin contributed to the misinformation by misquoting the U.S. Flag Code. According to her: “…the American flag should not be flown upside down except in moments of national – dire national distress.”

The code actually says: “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” Historically, an inverted flag has been used my American ships to signal such distress.

Farah-Griffin added that what the Alito’s did was “un-American” and “disturbing” especially since it was allegedly done “days after a riot at the Capitol!” But her argument didn’t make much sense either since she, and many in the liberal media, had suggested that January 6 was a day of dire national distress; much like what she said was the only correct time to fly the flag inverted.

Fondacaro offered no evidence that Alito faced any “extreme danger to life or property” when the flag was being flown, which undermines his defense.

Mark Finkelstein whined that in discussing the flag incident, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough made the “entirely evidence-free” accusation that Alito was the one who leaked the draft of the court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade — despite later quoting Scarborough saying it was “my opinion only” that Alito was ” the guy most likely to have had something to do with the leaking of the Dobbs decision.” That falls short of the “accusation” Finkelstein claimed he made. Still, he felt the need to play the elitism card by claiming “entirely evidence-free) that Scarborough’s “accusation” came from his “summering buddies on liberal-elitist Nantucket.” Finkelstein also played some labored whataboutism to distract from the flag stuff:

Let’s play a thought game. Alito has said that he had no involvement in flying the flag, and that it was his wife who did so in response to objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs that a neighbor had put up. 

Now imagine that the wife of a conservative Justice is a liberal. In response to a pro-life sign put up by a conservative neighbor, she puts an “Our Bodies Our Choice–Hands Off Roe!” sign in their front yard — only to have her husband order her to take it down. 

Which would be the more likely reaction from liberals?  Would they applaud the Justice for standing up for judicial independence? Or would they condemn the Justice for patriarchal infringement on his wife’s freedom of expression and accuse the Justice of attempting to turn his wife into a Handmaid, and his home into a mini-Gilead [labels with which MSNBCers have slurred Justice Amy Coney Barrett]?

And what would Finkelstein’s reaction be? Would it be the same as the handwave he’s currently giving to the Alitos?

Tim Graham also play the Kavanaugh whataboutism card in a May 18 post:

On Friday’s PBS NewsHour, the Week in Review segment dove into the New York Times“scoop” that the flag flew upside down for a few days in January 2021 outside the home of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito. This was Big News? Two years ago, when a man showed up outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house intending to assassinate him, the NewsHour didn’t find that worthy on Friday June 10, 2022.

Of course, the Big News then was slobbering over the Pelosi-picked January 6 Committee, just as this Alito story is a January 6 echo. 

[…]

Capehart and PBS and all their leftist media colleagues are actively trying to erode trust in the Supreme Court, because they’re not in charge of it right now.

Is that like how Graham, the MRC and their fellow right-wingers are trying to erode trust in the criminal justice system because Donald Trump was held accountable for his crimes? And how they are trying to erode trust in the election system because Trump lost in 2020?

Alex Christy spent a May 18 post that the story continued to get coverage:

After not-so cleverly trying and failing to get Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from important Supreme Court cases related to January 6, the left and the media have moved on to try to not-so cleverly get Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself based on a photo of an upside-down flag outside his home that was said to show support for the rioters. On Saturday’s Good Morning America, ABC White House correspondent MaryAlice Parks omitted key details from Alito’s side of the story as she also hyped that even the appearance of bias can undermine the Court’s credibility.

It was ABC’s second day in a row of echoing the smear and co-host Whit Johnson showed the picture and introduced Parks by noting, “This morning Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is under fire. The New York Times obtaining this photo of an American flag flying upside down reportedly at Alito’s home in the days just after the January 6th riot. ABC’s White House correspondent, MaryAlice Parks, joins us now from Washington with more. MaryAlice, good morning.”

For Parks, “The central question here is whether Justice Alito or someone from his family was trying to show solidarity with those who wanted to subvert the 2020 Election results or even with those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Now, according to the New York Times, the American flag flew upside down for days at the Alito House right before President Biden’s inauguration. Flags, of course, are never supposed to be flown upside down unless to signal great distress, but former President Trump’s supporters had adopted it as a symbol, some even carrying it as they stormed the Capitol.”

If it is really “the central question,” then some discussion on Alito’s record on the 2020 Election would be appropriate, but Parks wasn’t interested in that. Instead, she recalled, “Justice Alito did not reply to our request but blamed his wife in a comment to the Times and has downplayed the incident. Still, the leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, is calling for Alito to recuse himself from all January 6th-related cases. The Court is expected to rule on two cases related to the attack on the Capitol in the next few weeks, including one about whether Trump has immunity for his actions.”

Parks completely misrepresented and omitted key details of Alito’s side of the story. He was not blaming his wife, he was simply explaining she was on the receiving end of abuse from nasty neighbors who blamed her for January 6 and used vile language, including the C-word.

Christy seems to have missed the relevant point that it’s a bad look for the wife of a Supreme Court justice to make explicit political statements, however much she may have been provoked, and that it looks particularly bad for her husband since it raises legitimate questions about the impartiality of the justice he offers.

Graham served up a whataboutism-laden May 20 podcast, under the snarky headline “Eek, The Alito Bandito Flies the Flag Upside-Down”:

The New York Times considered it front-page material that leftist neighbors snitched on Supreme Court justice Sam Alito. A flag flew upside-down in his yard in the days after January 6. This same Democrat rag published an assassination threat to Justice Kavanaugh two years ago on Page A-20.

Liberal or leftist neighbors of the Alitos showed their photos of the flag to the Times, and were rewarded with anonymity by reporter Jodi Kantor: “The half-dozen neighbors who saw the flag, or knew of it, requested anonymity because they said they did not want to add to the contentiousness on the block and feared reprisal.”

Wait — they didn’t want to “add to the contentiousness on the block” while they shared photos of their neighbors to The New York Times.

The networks launched critical stories. On PBS, NewsHour anchor Geoff Bennett brought it into their Friday night Week in Politics segment. That’s fascinating. Because on June 10, 2022, the NewsHour couldn’t devote that segment to assassination threat against Justice Kavanaugh!

Christy continued the defense operation in comedy-cop mode in a May 21 post:

CBS’s Stephen Colbert reacted on Monday’s edition of The Late Show to the story that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife Martha-Ann flew an upside-down flag at their home in response to neighborly abuse by accusing the couple of being Nazis.

Colbert declared that “when it comes to January 6th cases argued before the Court, Alito has been highly sympathetic to the mob. That’s like when your couples therapist is wearing a shirt that says, “Team David.” There’s no possible justification for a Supreme Court justice displaying a symbol of insurrection at his home.”

There’s no evidence Alito has sympathy for the January 6 rioters’ cause, but Colbert rolled right along, failing to see the difference between blaming and explaining, “Which is why, when this photo was published, Alito immediately did the right thing, owned up, and blamed his wife, saying in a statement that he had ‘No involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag.’ And ‘It was briefly placed by his wife, Martha-Ann.’ So he dropped a dime on his gal, citing the landmark case of Me Just Tryna Live My Life v. Ladies Be Crazy, Amirite?'”

Colbert did concede that there was context beyond January 6, “Crazy! Alito excused his wife’s desecration of the flag that our forefathers died for at Iwo Jima, because he says she only did it because a neighbor displayed a “[bleep] Trump” sign on their lawn, and when Mrs. Alito confronted the neighbor about it, they say the neighbor addressed his wife using vulgar language, ‘Including the C-word.’”

However, Colbert then took a leap into the logical abyss by trying to claim that the Alitos sided with the rioters as a way to get back at their neighbors, “Okay, that is not nice. But if someone calls you the C-word, putting up an insurrection flag is not the response. ‘Oh, you were rude to my wife? Well, we’re Nazis now.’ So, are you happy? So Martha-Ann runs up the January 6 flag, and then Sam comes home from work, sees it, and is like, ‘Honey, I understand you’re upset, but we have to take that down immediately. For Pete’s sake, I’m a justice of the Supreme Court,’ is what would have been nice to have happened.[“]

Christy further whined about Colbert doing a “clown nose on-clown nose off routine. He insists that Alito is essentially a Nazi sympathizer who is delegitimizing the Court, but he himself is a simple jester.”

Clay Waters whined that the upside-down flag raised legitimate questions about Alito in a May 22 post:

Taxpayer-funded PBS took another bite out of the Justice Alito flag controversy on Sunday’s edition of PBS News Weekend, interviewing New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, who made the front page with her scoop that the American flag briefly flew upside down outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021.

Laura Barron-Lopez, perhaps the network’s most biased reporter, was substitute anchor over the weekend and coincidentally or not, the usually sleepier Weekend shows were more ideologically charged than usual. The harder edge was apparent from Saturday’s show introduction, using the upside-down American flag that flew over Alito’s home in January 2021 to condemn the conservative Supreme Court.

[…]

Barron-Lopez relayed Justice Alito’s explanation that his wife placed the flag upside down in response to a neighbor’s display (a sign with a four-letter insult of Trump). Always a willing partisan, Barron-Lopez used the controversy to tar another conservative justice through something his wife did.

The MRC, of course, has been a huge defender of fellow right-wing justice Clarence Thomas, even though wife Ginni’s far-right activism, even if it didn’t feel liked defending her at one point.

Jorge Bonilla, meanwhile, smelled a conspiracy:

Tonight’s ABC and CBS evening newscasts aired reports in furtherance of the ongoing campaign to pressure a sitting Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Samuel Alito, into recusing himself from upcoming opinions that have a direct effect on the ongoing federal prosecutions against former President Donald Trump. 

[…]

Both ABC and CBS’s items touched common points. Both reports follow the lead of Jodi Kantor’s reporting in The New York Times. Both reports note that Alito flew another “problematic” flag at one of his properties, that the flag is adjacent to January 6th, and that Democrats want Alito to recuse ahead of Supreme Court opinions on obstruction and presidential immunity, which will affect many J6 cases in addition to the Trump federal prosecutions.

But this goes beyond just reporting. 

The release of these items, timed a month before the current Supreme Court session ends and with it the publication of landmark and/or controversial opinions, has a twofold purpose. The first, to pressure Justice Samuel Alito into recusing himself from the aforementioned matters. This is no different from the smear campaign against Justice Clarence Thomas (and also Alito), or from the carefully orchestrated character assassination op against then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the midst of his confirmation hearings[.]

Barring that, the publication and TV dissemination of these articles is intended to gin the leftist mobs into a frenzy such as we saw ahead of the Dobbs opinion, wherein they conducted illegal protests at the homes of conservative justices.

The only evidence Bonilla provided of his conspiracy theory is coincidental, not based in fact — you know, like most conspiracy theories. But he stuck to the conspiracy anyway: “This strategically-timed reporting on flags must be regarded as an attack against the independent judiciary, and therefore, against Democracy itself. The Regime Media, once again, engaging in election interference.”

Transphobia on the side

On a side issue, Sarah Butler defended Alito as part of her employer’s obsession with hating Dylan Mulvaney in a May 21 post:

On Monday, former Biden White House flack turned MSNBC host Jen Psaki pushed a wild conspiracy theory that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sold his shares of Anheuser-Busch in solidarity with a boycott of Bud Light all because of a mysterious tweet. Of course, she made these allegations without a shred of evidence; she didn’t even show the tweet.

In April of last year, a trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video with Bud Light cans a part of a March Madness ad campaign. The video went viral and Bud Lights sales dropped almost immediately as a national boycott ensued, causing Anheuser-Busch’s stock price to drop.

According to Psaki, four months later, and unidentified “anti-LGBTQ influencer” allegedly posted a “pre-transition photograph” of Mulvaney (she huffed that the post “disgustingly referred to her as ‘a dude’”). It was that tweet that supposedly triggered Alito’s sell off.

[…]

Psaki provided no evidence that this tweet was the reason Alito sold his shares. She couldn’t prove he ever saw the tweet; he doesn’t even have a X account.

A more reasonable explanation for Alito’s sell off? Bud Light was suffering from an ongoing boycott. Sales were down because people were adamant about not buying from Bud Light but they wanted their financial support to go somewhere that would hurt Bud Light. Because of this, people became more interested in buying beer from Molson Coors – Bud Lights biggest competitor. People wanted to support Coors as a way to financially hurt Bud Light even more. This lead to Coors having global net sales that amounted to $11.7 billion.

The reason for Justice Alito selling his shares was probably more related to the fact that Bud Light had lost over $1.4 billion in sales. If an individual’s stock drops then they sell that stock and usually buy a rising stock that is projected to do better than the stock they originally had.

Very few people would want to buy or keep stock of a company that was being boycotted and actively losing money. 

Butler didn’t explain why Bud Light deserved to be targeted for destruction for not hating transgender people enough.