On the Media’s Collusion with Antifa

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<em>Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.</em>
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If you had a suspicion that members of the corporate media are actively working to support the actions of Antifa’s more violent members, this story should confirm what you already suspect. Today, conservative activists held the Demand Free Speech Freedom Rally in Washington, D.C. and true to form, Antifa showed up to protest the rally.

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The hard leftist organization — whose operatives are known for physically assaulting conservatives — descended on Freedom Plaza and some of its members attacked rallygoers in the streets. It is not yet known how much violence occurred at the event, but to those who follow the news, their conduct is not surprising.

But what might be surprising to some is the fact that Antifa has managed to obtain the support of the press. Julio Rosas, a reporter, working with The Washington Examiner, revealed that members of the organization barred journalists from taking pictures unless they agreed to the group’s rules. He tweeted a picture of Antifa’s guidelines that laid out the guidelines reporters were expected to follow. While some of the rules were mandates to which journalists already adhere. But the group also requested that journalists, “avoid publishing any potentially incriminating photos or video footage and be prepared to maintain your journalistic integrity if your raw footage, unpublished photos, or notes are sought through subpoena.”

To be clear, it is standard ethical practice for journalists to refrain from exposing their sources; some have done so even when threatened with prison. But it is not standard practice for a reporter to actively protect an individual by not publishing pictures that could show them committing a crime. Of course, it is the choice of the particular journalist to decide whether or not to publish pictures or statements made by an individual, but the fact that Antifa directed them not to put out images that could incriminate a  member of the group who engaged in politically-motivated violence is disturbing given the fact that the organization is known to have members who physically attack their political opposition.

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The notion that a member of the press would agree to cover for individuals who deliberately cause harm to those who disagree with them politically should concern Americans on both the left and the right. But it is only the latest indicator that some news outlets are in bed with the group. When right-leaning journalist Andy Ngo was viciously assaulted by members of Antifa, the legacy media was largely silent.

But individual reporters working with outlets like The New York Times made their opinions known on social media, many claiming that Ngo deserved his beating. Some even accused him of orchestrating the attack despite the lack of evidence that he was pulling a Smollett. To their credit, CNN made the surprising decision to interview Ngo and host Brian Stelter condemned Antifa’s actions. Unfortunately, they appear to have been the only mainstream left-leaning news outlet to do so.

In a piece written for Quillette, an online magazine, author Eoin Lenihan discussed the result of a study in which he and his partner analyzed the relationship between mainstream reporters and Antifa. They found that many members of the press support the extremist group in various ways:

“Of all 15 verified national-level journalists in our subset, we couldn’t find a single article, by any of them, that was markedly critical of Antifa in any way. In all cases, their work in this area consisted primarily of downplaying Antifa violence while advancing Antifa talking points, and in some cases quoting Antifa extremists as if they were impartial experts.”

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There are plenty of examples demonstrating how the corporate media runs cover for Antifa’s antics, and it is only granting validity to these actions. To be fair, there are people in the organization who do not support political violence, and it is likely that many of these individuals would rather not be associated with those who embrace violence.

But even if this is the case, these folks will never get the attention of either conservative or leftist media. Unfortunately, the objective of the current media establishment is to influence, not inform, the American public, so it is unlikely that we will see this situation get resolved anytime soon. Hopefully, nobody gets killed by the time this happens.

What do you think? Will political violence continue to worsen?

If you want to connect, reach out to me on Twitter: @JeffOnTheRight

 

 

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