The New York Times really hates patriotic flags, apparently.
This perspective comes after the alleged “newspaper of record” breathlessly reported a photo taken last year outside the Jersey Shore beach house of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
The snapshot showed several flags flying off a flagpole, including one that reads “An Appeal to Heaven” with a pine tree below it.
Next to it was a Philadelphia Phillies flag.
“Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home,” reads the Times headline, adding, “The justice’s beach house displayed . . . a symbol carried on Jan. 6 and associated with a push for a more Christian-minded government.”
What’s so “provocative” about this flag, exactly?
The Times portrays it as a rally symbol for those involved in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol because the flag was seen being held by a few of the protesters there.
But there were many different flags seen that day, most prominently the American flag itself.
No matter: The Old Gray Lady had a narrative to push, so the connection to Jan. 6 was automatically made — along with the implication that Alito is an open supporter of the Jan. 6 rioters.
Yet was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag a creation by MAGA supporters when Donald Trump jumped onto the political scene nine years ago?
Nope. Instead, this is a flag that was commissioned by George Washington during the Revolutionary War and flown off navy ships.
The appeal-to-heaven phrase is courtesy of the iconic philosopher John Locke, who declared that citizens must “appeal to heaven” absent the rule of law.
Hmmm . . . that doesn’t sound very insurrection-like, now does it?
So why is Alito being targeted by the Times?
The answer is simple: Democrats have been pushing for Alito to recuse himself from two cases currently on the Supreme Court docket that could impact special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump.
Alito may soon join rulings on presidential immunity and on federal obstruction law — decisions that could force Smith to drop some of his key charges.
The ginned-up pine tree flag controversy comes just one week after the Times discovered a 2021 photo of an American flag being flown upside down for a short time outside Alito’s Virginia home.
Alito denied having any role and pointed to his wife’s reaction to a dispute with a neighbor over a political lawn sign.
No other photos were found of any upside-down flags being flown there since.
But Democratic lawmakers, who are almost exclusively running on Jan. 6 and the Trump trials ahead of the November elections, are going to milk this for all it’s worth.
“There should be subpoenas going out. There should be active investigations that are happening,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told MSNBC.
Investigations into what exactly?
Free speech?
It should be noted that the Times has played this game before.
In 2021, Times columnist and editorial board member Mara Gay appeared on MSNBC to share what she called a “disturbing” experience.
“I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed,” she said.
“I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing.”
What sane and sober American believes lots of American flags in any community are a bad thing?
American flags and Trump flags will undoubtedly prompt Democrats and their allies in the media to call for more investigations of regular citizens and political opponents and judges — for apparently nothing more than exercising their right to free speech.
It’s likely 95% of the population didn’t even know the “Appeal to Heaven” flag even existed before the New York Times’ so-called bombshell went viral this week.
But they sure do now, all thanks to a Democratic Party and press in a full-blown panic that their lawfare efforts just might clinch Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist and a Fox News contributor.