The Ballad of the Tennessee Three: Right Wing Media Edition
By Kevin Howley, April 11, 2023
Here we go again.
As I write this Easter Monday, there’s breaking news out of Louisville, Kentucky of a mass shooting that’s claimed five lives and hospitalized eight.
I want to discuss the Republican-led assault on representative government in the Tennessee statehouse, but in light of the Louisville horror show, it’s important to put the egregious, anti-democratic acts in the Volunteer State in the wider context of this nation’s abject failure to address our gun violence epidemic.
After all, the “Tennessee Three” – Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, all Democrats – were reprimanded by a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee State House for the audacity of criticizing their colleagues’ unwillingness to take up gun control measures in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. The horrifying, all too familiar atrocity took the lives of three children and three educators.
Mainstream media coverage of the expulsion of two of the three lawmakers – Mr. Johnson, who represents Memphis, and Mr. Jones, Nashville’s state representative, both young African-American men – is largely sympathetic.
Predictably, right wing lawmakers (sic) and their media enablers have an entirely different take, a noxious, NRA-worthy perspective teeming with false equivalence and racial animus.
Deceptive and Offensive
In the aftermath of last month’s school massacre in Nashville, students, parents, educators and concerned citizens from across Tennessee assembled at the statehouse for a boisterous, but peaceful demonstration to demand action on gun violence.
Rather than console victims’ families and pledge swift legislative measures to avoid such tragedies in the future, Tennessee Republicans, led by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, decried the nonviolent, direct action as an “insurrection.”
To be clear, the GOP is loath to use the I-word in polite company. These charlatans prefer to ignore the gravity of the J6 insurrection on the nation’s capital. What’s more, they’re ready and willing to excuse, and even lionize, a violent mob summoned by the twice-impeached former president on that shameful day to overthrow a free and fair election.
The Federalist offered this deceptive and equally offensive lead to delegitimize peaceful protest: “A mob of anti-Second Amendment activists stormed the Tennessee Capitol on Thursday, demanding restrictions on Americans’ right to bear arms following the Nashville killing of six Christians, three of whom were children, at the hands of a transgender-identifying shooter.” It’s reporting like this that’ll make you wonder, Who would Jesus cut down with an assault weapon?
Breitbart offers a more subtle rebuke of the protests. Echoing media coverage of the Occupy movement, the story dismisses protests for lacking focus or a clear demand. “The group does not specify any particular gun control measure nor have they indicated a gun control which would have prevented the 28-year-old transgender attacker from killing six people at a Christian school on Monday.” Disingenuous to be sure, but reporting school shootings to score points in the right’s escalation of its culture war targeting transgender youth is beyond the pale.
Then there’s this item from Bearing Arms headlined “Tennessee Teacher of the Year Calls for Gun Control.” Quoting at length an impassioned plea for gun control by Melissa Collins, the 2023 award winning educator, the writer offers this demeaning response: “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” Class dismissed.
Dog Whistle Politics
Headlined, “Tennessee House Boots Dems Who Staged ‘Insurrection’ in Chamber,” WND doubles down on false equivalence between the failed J6 coup attempt and three lawmakers who struggled to amplify the voices of constituents demanding gun control from their elected representatives. Instead, the Republican-dominated House voted to expel the two African-American state representatives for “disorderly conduct.”
In similar fashion, the Tennessee Lookout echoes and amplifies House Speaker Sexton’s misleading characterization of the Tennessee Three’s courageous resistance to GOP efforts to silence dissent. “Two of the members, Reps. (Justin) Jones and (Gloria) Johnson, have been very vocal about Jan. 6 in Washington … What they did today was at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending how you look at it, of doing an insurrection in the capitol.” Sedition, it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder.
In short order, the two African-American members of the Tennessee Three were expelled. But, according to State Representative Jody Barrett, a Republican, race was not a factor in the vote. Barrett rather unconvincingly assured NPR as much, saying, “I am a member who voted for the expulsion of the two younger gentlemen and did not vote for the expulsion of Ms. Johnson, and it had absolutely nothing to do with race.” Self-deception, perhaps. But to my ears, this is what duplicity sounds like.
Say this for right wing media, they make no bones about flaunting white privilege, not to mention white supremacy. Consider conservative coverage of Vice President Harris’ visit in solidarity with the Tennessee Three and their constituents last weekend. Hot Air offers this sly take: “When Democrats lose control of themselves and create chaos and havoc, say, on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives, it’s righteous protesting.”
Subtlety has never been Gateway Pundit’s strong suit. This headline, by far the most candidly racist of the lot, speaks for itself: “Such BS. Kamala Harris STARTS SCREAMING With NOSTRILS FLARING While Defending Radical Democrats and Rioters Who Shut Down State Assembly in Tennessee.”
Call it what you will, but this isn’t journalism. It isn’t even punditry. It’s old school dog whistle politics.
Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.
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Mainstream media coverage of the expulsion of two of the three Tennessee lawmakers, both young African-American men, is largely sympathetic. Predictably, right wing lawmakers (sic) and their media enablers have a noxious, NRA-worthy perspective teeming with false equivalence and racial animus. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
