How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 9 (Promoting A Fundamentalist Domestic Terror Group)

Background/Context:

1. How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 8 (Helping Cover Up GOP Discrimination Against Jews)

2. Fox News And The GOP Are Basically Terrorist Organizations (Based On Their Rhetoric & The Effects Of That Rhetoric)

3. Media Matters Proves Corporate Media's Journalists Aren't Real Journalists

Mainstream media are whitewashing Patriot Prayer, a violent far-right group in Portland Patriot Prayer has been linked to murders and other violent attacks. The New York Times described it as promoting “Christianity and smaller government.”

In the wake of the shooting death over the weekend of a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer in Portland, Oregon, The New York Times, USA Today, and MSNBC are papering over the intrinsically violent nature of the group, its ties to white nationalism, and its history of staging armed confrontations against anti-fascist activists. This lapse is part of a larger pattern of mainstream media coverage that shies away from calling out right-wing extremism.

Patriot Prayer’s typical playbook, as the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented, is to “assemble a ready-to-rumble crew with out-of-town violent extremists, then troll through the urban center in hopes of confronting left-wing protesters, ensuring violence eventually will break out.” Patriot Prayer has repeatedly organized public events in Portland with the Proud Boys, which the FBI designates as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism.” An attendee at a 2017 “free speech” rally organized by Patriot Prayer went on to murder two people and injure another in a hate crime attack a month later — only for the group to still go ahead with a planned “Trump Free Speech Rally” a week after that — and was sentenced this year to life in prison. Another frequent Patriot Prayer rally attendee and a member of the Proud Boys has posted threats online against the mayor of Portland.

The fatal shooting this weekend in Portland occurred shortly after a pro-Trump caravan traveling through the city confronted counterprotesters downtown.

The New York Times’ article about the shooting identified the victim in the subheadline as “a man affiliated with a right-wing group,” but the connection was not explained until the 12th paragraph: “The man who was shot and killed was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland area that has clashed with protesters in the past. Joey Gibson, the head of the group, said Sunday he could not share many details but could confirm the man was a good friend and supporter of Patriot Prayer.”

But then in the 22nd paragraph, the reader was presented with a description taken from the group itself: “Patriot Prayer, a local group that says it promotes Christianity and smaller government, has repeatedly clashed with activists in Portland.” With that introduction in place, only then were further details provided of what Patriot Prayer’s activities mean in practice: “The group has at times operated alongside militia groups, and the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that some Patriot Prayer events have drawn white supremacists. Last year, Mr. Gibson, the group’s leader, was charged along with others with rioting after a brawl in the city.”

The rioting charges as well as a civil lawsuit stem from a May 2019 incident in which Gibson and others allegedly planned a confrontation at a local bar, called Cider Riot, where left-wing activists were holding a May Day celebration.

The Portland Mercury reported on the lawsuit:

Videos posted to Twitter by bystanders show members of Patriot Prayer approaching Cider Riot's outside patio dressed in armor, wearing helmets, and wielding batons. After shouting insults and hateful language at the patrons, one man in a MAGA hat sprays the people sitting on the patio with mace, kicking off a violent melee.

According to the lawsuit, Gibson “facilitated and refereed a street fight" between two people on the street outside of Cider Riot. Not long after, the suit claims, another Patriot Prayer member named Ian Kramer, “used a baton to crack a Cider Riot patron on the head, knocking her unconscious." She allegedly suffered a “serious vertebrae fracture."

For a group that officially claims to champion free speech, Gibson had also been organizing another event to oppose the bar’s screening of a documentary about LGBT activist Marsha P. Johnson. The lawsuit notes that “he introduced Cider Riot as ‘Antifa central'” in a Facebook livestream of the incident, “then asked his followers to look into the business, its owners, and its landlord. He then told his audience that ‘If they cared about Portland… take care of this establishment.’” Gibson responded to the lawsuit by saying that “maybe Cider Riot should stop co-hosting parties” for the local anti-fascist group.

Patriot Prayer’s Facebook page has also been a center of hate speech, including violent threats against Muslim groups. In January 2019, Patriot Prayer gathered outside the Portland offices of the far-left Industrial Workers of the World labor union, with participants yelling such messages as, “Get them dirty Muslims out of our country.” Another attendee told a counterdemonstrator, “We’re gonna hurt you.”

None of the above information made it to the Times reporting.

On its part, USA Today, uncritically gave this description from the group’s Facebook page in its article on the shooting:

Patriot Prayer is a right-wing group “about fighting corruption, big government, and tyranny using God for strength and the power of love,” Gibson wrote on the group's Facebook page.

Based in Washington, the group has rallied Trump supporters for demonstrations in Portland since 2017.

A separate explainer piece in USA Today also conveyed Gibson’s description of the group as “a loosely organized band with a distaste for big government but lots of love for the red, white and blue.” The final sentence of the piece ended in a rather abrupt manner: “Counterprotesters confronting Patriot Prayer and other right-wing groups such as the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters is nothing new to the city” — obfuscating the clear association between Patriot Prayer and white nationalists such as the Proud Boys, and its instigation of violent altercations in the city.

Late on Monday afternoon, MSNBC featured a largely sympathetic interview by NBC News correspondent Erin McLaughlin in which Patriot Prayer founder Gibson described his late friend as “one of the nicest guys that you'll ever meet.” Gibson continued: “Anyone that knows him, it doesn't matter if you're far-left, or whatever, you’re conservative, no one would ever want to hurt this guy, he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve seriously ever met in my entire life.”

The segment did not include any questions to Gibson about Patriot Prayer’s long record of violent activities in Portland.

Media

• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 8 (Helping Cover Up GOP Discrimination Against Jews)
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 7
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 6
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 5
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 4
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 3
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 2
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 1
• Media Matters Proves Corporate Media's Journalists Aren't Real Journalists
• Media Ignore Trump's Well Wishes To Alleged Underage Sex Trafficker And Instead Try To Enhance His Image, A Common Theme When Media Has To Deal With Republicans
• John Oliver Scoops Mainstream Media By Showing How Fox News Controls Trump's Words & Actions On Coronavirus
• Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them (Certainly Explains The Covid 19 Fallout)
• Media Matters: NY Times Shouldn't Treat Matters Of Facts As Opinions, And Opinions Shouldn’t Be Treated As Matters Of Fact
• Washington Post & NY Times Buried The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Lies Push On A Coronavirus Bill
• CNN Buries The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Push (Does CNN Or Its Parent Company Get Money From This Stimulus Bill?)
• NY Times Has Proven Its Biased Against Bernie Sanders And Thus Not A Real News Organization
• NY Times Helps Trump Lie About Obama Concerning Coronavirus Response
• Chris Mathews, A Useless Newsman/Journalist Has Left NBC/MSNBC, Thank God!
• Media Fail To Inform The Public That Trump Fired The Infectious Diseases Experts In Place To Protect The United States Of America... To Save Money For Golf Or To Make The Government Smaller
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies - Part 2
• The Phenomenon Of The Muslim Narrative In America Part 2
• Bernie Sanders’ Rise Prompts Media Meltdown, Establishment Panic: A Closer Look
• Mainstream Media Is Completely Failing In Covering The Enormity & Context Of Trump's State Of The Union Speech
• Obama Notices The GOP Are Like Nazis And Warns Us About Being Complacent (& Media Completely Ignores Obama's Warning!)
• We Know That Most People Only Read Headlines So Is Mainstream Media Being Incredibly Stupid Or Are They Intentionally Pushing Untruths?
• CNN's "Civility" Argument Shows CNN Anchors/Hosts Can't Put Facts In Context Of What's Going On!
• CNN Hires A Well Known And Proven Liar To EDIT The News In Secret (i.e. No Disclaimer On Anything Edited By Her!)
• War Based Money Con: Chuck Todd Of Meet The Press Promoted Pro-Iran War Views By Hosting A Lobbyist/Briber Without Disclosing That He Was Doing That And Helped The Guys Companies Stock Go Up!
• BREAKING: Corporate Media Is Helping The GOP With Their Lies On Iran The Way They Did With Iraq
• CNN's "Editor At Large" (Chris Cillizza) Lies About And Frames Elizabeth Warren! What's That About And Who's Paying/Influencing Him To Do It? DNC/Biden?
• Media Uselessness Example: Ignoring Historical Context To Explain The Trump VS Lincoln Poll Of Republicans
• Moment Of Zen: Fox News Was Designed To Protect A Republican President From The Constitution!
• The Many Times The Washington Post Has Betrayed The Public's Trust
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies
• Media Uselessness Example: Corporate Media Gives Steve King A Pass On White Supremacism
• Here Is Chuck Todd Skewing Viewers Perceptions With A Pro-Republican Piece Using NBC's Meet The Press
• The Coast Guard Domestic Terrorist Is Just The Latest Right Wing Terrorist Enabled By Media Silence On Fox News Incendiary Rhetoric
• Why Do News Outlets Bring On Non-Scientists To Argue Against Science?
• Examples Of How The "Fact Based" News Media Distorts Public Perception Of Truth Because Of Unusually Bad And/Or Incompetent Journalism
• As Fox News Launches Fox Nation, I Would Like To Note That Mainstream Media Lets Fox Lie Unchallenged And Don't Fight Fox To Dominate The Ratings By Suppressing Their Lies... Thus Fox Has Been #1 For Decades. "Fact" Based Media Has Enabled Right Wing Hate & Are Thus A Threat To National Security!
• BREAKING: Fox News Is The Real President
• Don't Let Chuck Todd Fool Ya. The GOP Really Is Very Very Bad
• Chuck Todd: Spreading Lies By Sanitizing Right Wing Nuts Talking Points
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story
• Trump's Terrorist Attack On the Press (With Fox News Support)
• Fox News Has Literally Been Created For Obstruction Of Justice (i.e. Choosing Party Over Country Is What They Are All About)
• The Ultimate Proofs That Fox News Is Basically Just A Group Of White Supremacists/Nationalists/Nazis
• The Infowars Style Group Of Hate & Violence Mongers, Include Fox News & Fox Business!
• Fox News Is A MAINSTREAM Fearmongering Media Channel Mistakenly Labelled Real News Followed By A Bunch Of Sheep Who Don't/Can't See The Con!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Southern Strategy By The GOP Created Modern Politics But They Continuously Get Away With It!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny: The Paul Ryan Example, i.e. "Paul Ryan Is A Bad Person", So Why Won't The Media Tell The American People?
• The Main Political Commentators At Fox News & Alex Jones (Infowars) Are Now Joined At The Hip
• How Media Enables The GOP's Southern Strategy: The Puerto Rico & Hurricane Maria Example
• NRA, Infowars, Fox News, Breitbart And Sinclair Function As A Terrorist Propaganda Wing Of The GOP That Seeks To Build Hate & Muddy The Waters (Kinda Like State TV)
• Note - Gerrymandering Is A Subset Of "Rigging Elections" Or "Election Fraud", An Important Aspect That Gets Left Out Of Media Coverage
• Fox News - And Right Wing Media - Is Nothing More Than A Conspiracy & Nazi-Style Propaganda Ring
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - Making Russia Seem Worse Than The GOP (& How Russia & The Right-Wing/GOP Are Really In A Symbiotic Relationship!)
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Ongoing Iraq War Lies Coverup By Richard Engel & NBC
• The Right Wing Are Basically Terrorists Or "Terrorist Creators" (Alt Right Terrorists Is The Politically Correct Term)
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story (Choosing Politeness Over Saving Lives?)
• The Liars & Bullshitters Of The Iraq War (Such As John Bolton) Are Still Treated With Respect By Mainstream Media (Despite Being Constantly Wrong... Its Like Being Respectful To Nazis Because They Are Americans)
• FLASHBACK: The Tea Party Wasn't Authentic Because Outside Groups (Fox News & The Kochs) Created, Organized And Spread It
• Outlining The Kochs Treasonous Agenda: Proofs That The Koch Brothers OWN The Right Wing & Thus The GOP Could Be Renamed "KOCH"
• NBC/MSNBC's Hidden Role As "The Rights, Left"
• CNN's Model For Reporting & Journalism Has A Problem With Conveying The Whole Truth Based On Facts To Its Viewers Because Of Its "Both Sides" Format That Places Outright Lies On the Same Footing With Facts On Their "Facts First" Apple-Banana Channel
• An Introduction To, & Overview Of, The Mainstream Corporate Media
• FCC's Anti-Constitutional Push Under Trump To Cut Of Net Neutrality To Increase Authoritarianism
• BREAKING... The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It OR Real Economics VS Fake Economics: How The Kochs Are Destroying America By Attacking Its Societal Structures In Favor Of Social Darwinism Or "Survival Of The Fittest"
• Trump's America: The GOP Sentences At Least 15,000 To 17,000 Americans To Death EVERY YEAR! (i.e. The Effects Of 13 Million Uninsured)
• How "Liberal" Media Helps The GOP With It's Fake Healthcare (More Examples Of The Corporate Media's Coverups)
• Corporate Media's Iraq War Coverup: Incontrovertible Proof Of Network News & The Beltway Media Covering Facts About The Iraq War For Their GOP Masters

How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 8 (Helping Cover Up GOP Discrimination Against Jews)

Background:

1. How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 7

2. Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them 

3. BREAKING: Trump Supporters Launch Coronavirus War On Cops & Jews

Media Matters: A planned RNC speaker shared a conspiracy theory alleging a Jewish plot to enslave the world. CNN and MSNBC quickly moved on from the story.

Fox News spent less than one minute on the story; CNN covered for nine minutes and MSNBC for ten minutes

On Tuesday, the Republican National Convention dropped Mary Ann Mendoza, an “angel mom” whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant drunk driver in 2014, from the program just hours before she was scheduled to speak. Earlier in the day, Mendoza had shared an anti-Semitic Twitter thread from a QAnon conspiracy theorist that falsely alleged a Jewish plot to enslave the world with perpetual war. Even though Mendoza is also an advisory board member on President Donald Trump’s campaign, televised coverage on CNN and MSNBC quickly moved on from the story after Mendoza lost her speaking slot.

From Tuesday, August 25, when the story broke through 1 p.m. EDT on August 26, CNN covered the Mendoza story for just under nine minutes, including a panel discussion and report from the network’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. MSNBC covered it for just over 10 minutes, including one panel discussion and several questions to Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh.

Fox News, which had initially promoted Mendoza’s then-scheduled appearance for four minutes earlier in the day, including an interview with her, covered the story with two headline segments for less than one minute.

This dwindling media focus on QAnon-linked extremism and anti-Semitism among one of Trump campaign advisory board members is even more stark considering he invited Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent QAnon believer and a Republican nominee for Congress, to the White House for the final night of the RNC. Trump has hailed Greene, who is widely expected to win her November election, as “a future Republican star,” despite her support for a popular conspiracy theory that is linked to several crimes and considered a possible domestic terrorism threat. And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen disastrous reporting failures unfold in real-time. When QAnon supporters staged nationwide rallies recently, local media largely covered them as innocent citizen attempts to raise awareness of child abduction.

Mendoza’s bad retweets are not an outlier and though the coronavirus pandemic, protests against police brutality, riots, Hurricane Laura, and so much more are worthy of significant coverage, so too is a dangerous and destructive conspiracy theory taking over the Republican Party.

Related: 

Media Matters: Marjorie Taylor Greene shared an anti-Muslim video that portrays Jewish people as trying to destroy Europe through immigration

Media

• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 7
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 6
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 5
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 4
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 3
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 2
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 1
• Media Matters Proves Corporate Media's Journalists Aren't Real Journalists
• Media Ignore Trump's Well Wishes To Alleged Underage Sex Trafficker And Instead Try To Enhance His Image, A Common Theme When Media Has To Deal With Republicans
• John Oliver Scoops Mainstream Media By Showing How Fox News Controls Trump's Words & Actions On Coronavirus
• Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them (Certainly Explains The Covid 19 Fallout)
• Media Matters: NY Times Shouldn't Treat Matters Of Facts As Opinions, And Opinions Shouldn’t Be Treated As Matters Of Fact
• Washington Post & NY Times Buried The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Lies Push On A Coronavirus Bill
• CNN Buries The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Push (Does CNN Or Its Parent Company Get Money From This Stimulus Bill?)
• NY Times Has Proven Its Biased Against Bernie Sanders And Thus Not A Real News Organization
• NY Times Helps Trump Lie About Obama Concerning Coronavirus Response
• Chris Mathews, A Useless Newsman/Journalist Has Left NBC/MSNBC, Thank God!
• Media Fail To Inform The Public That Trump Fired The Infectious Diseases Experts In Place To Protect The United States Of America... To Save Money For Golf Or To Make The Government Smaller
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies - Part 2
• The Phenomenon Of The Muslim Narrative In America Part 2
• Bernie Sanders’ Rise Prompts Media Meltdown, Establishment Panic: A Closer Look
• Mainstream Media Is Completely Failing In Covering The Enormity & Context Of Trump's State Of The Union Speech
• Obama Notices The GOP Are Like Nazis And Warns Us About Being Complacent (& Media Completely Ignores Obama's Warning!)
• We Know That Most People Only Read Headlines So Is Mainstream Media Being Incredibly Stupid Or Are They Intentionally Pushing Untruths?
• CNN's "Civility" Argument Shows CNN Anchors/Hosts Can't Put Facts In Context Of What's Going On!
• CNN Hires A Well Known And Proven Liar To EDIT The News In Secret (i.e. No Disclaimer On Anything Edited By Her!)
• War Based Money Con: Chuck Todd Of Meet The Press Promoted Pro-Iran War Views By Hosting A Lobbyist/Briber Without Disclosing That He Was Doing That And Helped The Guys Companies Stock Go Up!
• BREAKING: Corporate Media Is Helping The GOP With Their Lies On Iran The Way They Did With Iraq
• CNN's "Editor At Large" (Chris Cillizza) Lies About And Frames Elizabeth Warren! What's That About And Who's Paying/Influencing Him To Do It? DNC/Biden?
• Media Uselessness Example: Ignoring Historical Context To Explain The Trump VS Lincoln Poll Of Republicans
• Moment Of Zen: Fox News Was Designed To Protect A Republican President From The Constitution!
• The Many Times The Washington Post Has Betrayed The Public's Trust
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies
• Media Uselessness Example: Corporate Media Gives Steve King A Pass On White Supremacism
• Here Is Chuck Todd Skewing Viewers Perceptions With A Pro-Republican Piece Using NBC's Meet The Press
• The Coast Guard Domestic Terrorist Is Just The Latest Right Wing Terrorist Enabled By Media Silence On Fox News Incendiary Rhetoric
• Why Do News Outlets Bring On Non-Scientists To Argue Against Science?
• Examples Of How The "Fact Based" News Media Distorts Public Perception Of Truth Because Of Unusually Bad And/Or Incompetent Journalism
• As Fox News Launches Fox Nation, I Would Like To Note That Mainstream Media Lets Fox Lie Unchallenged And Don't Fight Fox To Dominate The Ratings By Suppressing Their Lies... Thus Fox Has Been #1 For Decades. "Fact" Based Media Has Enabled Right Wing Hate & Are Thus A Threat To National Security!
• BREAKING: Fox News Is The Real President
• Don't Let Chuck Todd Fool Ya. The GOP Really Is Very Very Bad
• Chuck Todd: Spreading Lies By Sanitizing Right Wing Nuts Talking Points
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story
• Trump's Terrorist Attack On the Press (With Fox News Support)
• Fox News Has Literally Been Created For Obstruction Of Justice (i.e. Choosing Party Over Country Is What They Are All About)
• The Ultimate Proofs That Fox News Is Basically Just A Group Of White Supremacists/Nationalists/Nazis
• The Infowars Style Group Of Hate & Violence Mongers, Include Fox News & Fox Business!
• Fox News Is A MAINSTREAM Fearmongering Media Channel Mistakenly Labelled Real News Followed By A Bunch Of Sheep Who Don't/Can't See The Con!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Southern Strategy By The GOP Created Modern Politics But They Continuously Get Away With It!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny: The Paul Ryan Example, i.e. "Paul Ryan Is A Bad Person", So Why Won't The Media Tell The American People?
• The Main Political Commentators At Fox News & Alex Jones (Infowars) Are Now Joined At The Hip
• How Media Enables The GOP's Southern Strategy: The Puerto Rico & Hurricane Maria Example
• NRA, Infowars, Fox News, Breitbart And Sinclair Function As A Terrorist Propaganda Wing Of The GOP That Seeks To Build Hate & Muddy The Waters (Kinda Like State TV)
• Note - Gerrymandering Is A Subset Of "Rigging Elections" Or "Election Fraud", An Important Aspect That Gets Left Out Of Media Coverage
• Fox News - And Right Wing Media - Is Nothing More Than A Conspiracy & Nazi-Style Propaganda Ring
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - Making Russia Seem Worse Than The GOP (& How Russia & The Right-Wing/GOP Are Really In A Symbiotic Relationship!)
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Ongoing Iraq War Lies Coverup By Richard Engel & NBC
• The Right Wing Are Basically Terrorists Or "Terrorist Creators" (Alt Right Terrorists Is The Politically Correct Term)
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story (Choosing Politeness Over Saving Lives?)
• The Liars & Bullshitters Of The Iraq War (Such As John Bolton) Are Still Treated With Respect By Mainstream Media (Despite Being Constantly Wrong... Its Like Being Respectful To Nazis Because They Are Americans)
• FLASHBACK: The Tea Party Wasn't Authentic Because Outside Groups (Fox News & The Kochs) Created, Organized And Spread It
• Outlining The Kochs Treasonous Agenda: Proofs That The Koch Brothers OWN The Right Wing & Thus The GOP Could Be Renamed "KOCH"
• NBC/MSNBC's Hidden Role As "The Rights, Left"
• CNN's Model For Reporting & Journalism Has A Problem With Conveying The Whole Truth Based On Facts To Its Viewers Because Of Its "Both Sides" Format That Places Outright Lies On the Same Footing With Facts On Their "Facts First" Apple-Banana Channel
• An Introduction To, & Overview Of, The Mainstream Corporate Media
• FCC's Anti-Constitutional Push Under Trump To Cut Of Net Neutrality To Increase Authoritarianism
• BREAKING... The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It OR Real Economics VS Fake Economics: How The Kochs Are Destroying America By Attacking Its Societal Structures In Favor Of Social Darwinism Or "Survival Of The Fittest"
• Trump's America: The GOP Sentences At Least 15,000 To 17,000 Americans To Death EVERY YEAR! (i.e. The Effects Of 13 Million Uninsured)
• How "Liberal" Media Helps The GOP With It's Fake Healthcare (More Examples Of The Corporate Media's Coverups)
• Corporate Media's Iraq War Coverup: Incontrovertible Proof Of Network News & The Beltway Media Covering Facts About The Iraq War For Their GOP Masters
• 
  

How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 7

Related Context/Background:
1. The Phenomenon Of The Muslim Narrative In America Part 2
2. Jon Stewart Catches Netanyahu for Repeating What He Said About Iran From 1996 While Others Reminds Us He Helped Dick Cheney Mislead Us Into A War With Iraq
3. The Right Wing Are Basically Terrorists Or "Terrorist Creators"
4. How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 6

Media Matters: Drawing a false equivalence between Ilhan Omar and Marjorie Taylor Greene is not only incorrect, but a dangerous standard to set when reporting on QAnon candidates

On August 11, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) won her primary campaign for reelection in Minnesota’s heavily Democratic 5th Congressional District. On the same day, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, also prevailed in her congressional primary in Georgia, almost definitively securing her a spot in Congress from her Republican-majority district.

The two could not be more different as political candidates -- Omar is the whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, while Greene has long supported the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory -- yet reporters and news outlets are falling into the disingenuous trap of decrying their supposedly shared radicalism and drawing false equivalencies between their beliefs. 

In doing so, news outlets are both normalizing the violence-linked QAnon conspiracy theory and helping to push a targeted smear campaign against Omar. 

The idea that Greene is somehow the Ilhan Omar of the Republican Party — an idea the National Republican Congressional Committee communications director alluded to when asked about Greene — is not only unfounded, but also a deflection on the part of Republicans to avoid any accountability for Greene’s QAnon roots. 

Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene and what is her connection to QAnon?

Greene ran as a Republican and won her runoff GOP primary in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, functionally securing her a seat in Congress. Greene is an outspoken QAnon supporter and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who, according to The Washington Post, “has also made racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments.” 

While some Republicans initially distanced themselves from Greene after reports of her QAnon support and other comments surfaced, many embraced her in the wake of the primary election. President Donald Trump enthusiastically praised Greene’s win on Twitter, calling her a “future Republican Star.” 

An internal FBI memo published by Yahoo News in 2019 classified QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat because of its ties to violence. The memo explained that the conspiracy theory revolves around a supposedly high-level government official known as “Q” who “posts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international child sex trafficking ring." These violent ties include a man who murdered his brother with a sword and another who threatened to kill YouTube employees.

Why the false equivalence? 

In 2019, Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) publicly criticized Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called their comments worse than those of infamous white supremacist Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who had recently been stripped of his committee assignments. Omar then tweeted, “It's all about the Benjamins baby,” in response to an article reporting that McCarthy was working to punish members of Congress critical of Israel. Omar later apologized for some of her phrasing and accidental use of anti-Semitic tropes while also doubling down on her criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying group. 

A month later, Omar again drew controversy for her remarks about lobbying by AIPAC:

Some Jewish leaders said she then revived an old trope about divided loyalties among Jewish-Americans when she said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

 

She added, “I want to ask, ‘Why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the (National Rifle Association), or fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?’”

Omar’s critical stance gave rise to disingenuous attacks against her by right-wing media figures who claimed that her criticism of Israeli policies makes her horribly anti-Semitic. 

Right-wing media outlets have now begun to compare Omar to Greene, falsely claiming that Greene is simply the Republican version of her. 

What makes the comparison between the two women particularly outrageous is the fact that Politico unearthed hours of racist and anti-Muslim video rants from Greene’s Facebook, some of which specifically targeted Omar. 

Greene described the election of Omar and Tlaib as “an Islamic invasion into our government offices” and called Omar “that woman out of Minnesota" who “has got to wear a head covering." She said, “If you want Islam and Sharia law, you stay over there in the Middle East. … You stay there, and you go to Mecca and do all your thing. And, you know what, you can have a whole bunch of wives, or goats, or sheep, or whatever you want. You stay over there. But in America, see, we’ve made it this great, great country. We don’t want it messed up."

In fact, following the AIPAC controversy, Greene traveled to Capitol Hill in 2019 and filmed herself attempting to confront Omar and Tlaib, who she falsely claimed are “illegitimate members of Congress because they took their congressional oaths of office on the Quran” (Greene said she wanted to make them retake their oath on the Bible). “She also said she wanted to tell them they ‘really should go back to the Middle East if they support Sharia.’”

Greene’s racist rants reportedly include a statement that Black people are being “held slaves to the Democratic Party.” She has also posted “an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that [liberal philanthropist George] Soros, a Holocaust survivor, collaborated with the Nazis” and secretly controls “every single Democrat politician.”

Despite ample evidence of Greene’s bigotry and racism, right-wing media are still comparing her politics to those of Omar. 

Examples of right-wing media drawing false equivalencies

Right-wing media outlets are unapologetically comparing Omar and Greene, implying that they are both equally radical but on opposite sides of the political spectrum. 

• The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro had a meltdown on the August 14 edition of his show over election coverage of Omar and Greene, claiming that Omar “is a radical anti-Semite who really, really, really hates Israel and says horrible things about the United States as well,” but the media cover her favorably compared to the way they report on Greene. “It’s worth covering Greene,” Shapiro continued, “but it’s also worth covering” how the media have treated Omar even though she has “said awful things beginning to end from the very moment that she entered Congress and actually well before.” Shapiro also concluded that Greene’s treatment is part of the “media double standard.” 

• Prior to discussing this on his show, Shapiro had also tweeted a similar sentiment.

• ZeroHedge, a far-right conspiracy theory blog, posted an article both-sidesing Omar and Greene titled “‘Anti-Semite’ Ilhan Omar & ‘QAnon Believer’ Marjorie Taylor Greene Win Tuesday-Night Primaries.”

• On the August 12 edition of The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino, Fox News anchor Dana Perino made a further false equivalency between Omar and Greene as she displayed their photos while introducing a report on primary elections, saying, “Two of the most polarizing congressional candidates out there had a very good night.”

• On the August 12 edition of Fox News @ Night, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey compared Omar to Greene, saying, “You know, it's hard not to see that characterization of both sides kind of being taken by their extremes, especially on the left when you've got a Democratic Party who for example won't denounce some of the things Ilhan Omar has said.” She concluded that “we have to resist though the fear that maybe both parties are gripped by the most extreme and, in some cases, the most bigoted parts of their party.”

• Fox contributor Doug Schoen published an op-ed on Fox News’ website claiming that while both elections “provide clear evidence of the ascendancy of fringe movements and candidates within both major parties,” Omar’s reelection is more dangerous than Greene’s primary win: “It is clear to me that Omar’s victory and the threat of the progressive movement overtaking the mainstream Democratic party poses a greater challenge to Joe Biden and the Democrats than Greene’s victory does to Donald Trump and the GOP.”

Even mainstream media are drawing comparisons

While often more subtle than right-wing media, some mainstream media reporters are just as guilty in comparing Omar and Greene. NBC News contributor Dave Wasserman irresponsibly compared Omar and Greene:

After Wasserman posted his tweet, National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Chris Pack quote-tweeted it, asking, “What's the (D)iffe(R)ence between the two?”

A number of mainstream media outlets categorized Omar and Greene together when reporting election results, describing them both as controversial without sufficient nuance. 

• USA Today ran a piece headlined “Tuesday's primaries: Ilhan Omar fights for political survival and QAnon believer hopes to join the House,” calling them “the two biggest races to watch” for “some primary drama.”
• Politico grouped Omar and Greene together when reporting election night results, comparing the House resolution opposing anti-Semitism directed at Omar to future measures to be potentially taken against Greene. 

Yet in a sign of how tight Trump’s grip is on the GOP, few Republicans — including those who campaigned against Greene — spoke out in the wake of her primary win. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer of Minnesota had no comment on Wednesday.

A spokesperson to Emmer responded by invoking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came under fire for repeating Jewish tropes that many feel are anti-Semitic. Omar won her primary Tuesday night.

“Are Cheri Bustos and the DCCC going to support Ilhan Omar, given the concern House Democrats have expressed repeatedly with her racism and anti-Semitism?” NRCC spokesman Chris Pack said.

House Democrats responded to the Omar controversy last year by passing two resolutions decrying anti-Semitism, though the Minnesota Democrat wasn’t named in either measure.

McCarthy and GOP congressional leaders are hampered in how they can stop Greene by House rules and legal precedents. If Greene were to win in November, as expected, there’s no way the House can refuse to seat her, despite her incendiary comments.

Comparing Greene and Omar is not only incorrect, but normalizes QAnon 

Falsely suggesting the politics and beliefs of Greene and Omar are equally “radical” is both dangerous and incorrect. Equating Omar’s critical stance on the Israeli occupation of Palestine with Greene’s well-documented support for QAnon, which is rooted in beliefs about Satan-worshipping pedophiles running the world, creates a dangerous normalization of the conspiracy theory at a time when she will be one of at least 20 QAnon supporters on the ballot in November.

Media

• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 6
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 5
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 4
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 3
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 2
• How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 1
• Media Matters Proves Corporate Media's Journalists Aren't Real Journalists
• Media Ignore Trump's Well Wishes To Alleged Underage Sex Trafficker And Instead Try To Enhance His Image, A Common Theme When Media Has To Deal With Republicans
• John Oliver Scoops Mainstream Media By Showing How Fox News Controls Trump's Words & Actions On Coronavirus
• Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them (Certainly Explains The Covid 19 Fallout)
• Media Matters: NY Times Shouldn't Treat Matters Of Facts As Opinions, And Opinions Shouldn’t Be Treated As Matters Of Fact
• Washington Post & NY Times Buried The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Lies Push On A Coronavirus Bill
• CNN Buries The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Push (Does CNN Or Its Parent Company Get Money From This Stimulus Bill?)
• NY Times Has Proven Its Biased Against Bernie Sanders And Thus Not A Real News Organization
• NY Times Helps Trump Lie About Obama Concerning Coronavirus Response
• Chris Mathews, A Useless Newsman/Journalist Has Left NBC/MSNBC, Thank God!
• Media Fail To Inform The Public That Trump Fired The Infectious Diseases Experts In Place To Protect The United States Of America... To Save Money For Golf Or To Make The Government Smaller
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies - Part 2
• The Phenomenon Of The Muslim Narrative In America Part 2
• Bernie Sanders’ Rise Prompts Media Meltdown, Establishment Panic: A Closer Look
• Mainstream Media Is Completely Failing In Covering The Enormity & Context Of Trump's State Of The Union Speech
• Obama Notices The GOP Are Like Nazis And Warns Us About Being Complacent (& Media Completely Ignores Obama's Warning!)
• We Know That Most People Only Read Headlines So Is Mainstream Media Being Incredibly Stupid Or Are They Intentionally Pushing Untruths?
• CNN's "Civility" Argument Shows CNN Anchors/Hosts Can't Put Facts In Context Of What's Going On!
• CNN Hires A Well Known And Proven Liar To EDIT The News In Secret (i.e. No Disclaimer On Anything Edited By Her!)
• War Based Money Con: Chuck Todd Of Meet The Press Promoted Pro-Iran War Views By Hosting A Lobbyist/Briber Without Disclosing That He Was Doing That And Helped The Guys Companies Stock Go Up!
• BREAKING: Corporate Media Is Helping The GOP With Their Lies On Iran The Way They Did With Iraq
• CNN's "Editor At Large" (Chris Cillizza) Lies About And Frames Elizabeth Warren! What's That About And Who's Paying/Influencing Him To Do It? DNC/Biden?
• Media Uselessness Example: Ignoring Historical Context To Explain The Trump VS Lincoln Poll Of Republicans
• Moment Of Zen: Fox News Was Designed To Protect A Republican President From The Constitution!
• The Many Times The Washington Post Has Betrayed The Public's Trust
• Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies
• Media Uselessness Example: Corporate Media Gives Steve King A Pass On White Supremacism
• Here Is Chuck Todd Skewing Viewers Perceptions With A Pro-Republican Piece Using NBC's Meet The Press
• The Coast Guard Domestic Terrorist Is Just The Latest Right Wing Terrorist Enabled By Media Silence On Fox News Incendiary Rhetoric
• Why Do News Outlets Bring On Non-Scientists To Argue Against Science?
• Examples Of How The "Fact Based" News Media Distorts Public Perception Of Truth Because Of Unusually Bad And/Or Incompetent Journalism
• As Fox News Launches Fox Nation, I Would Like To Note That Mainstream Media Lets Fox Lie Unchallenged And Don't Fight Fox To Dominate The Ratings By Suppressing Their Lies... Thus Fox Has Been #1 For Decades. "Fact" Based Media Has Enabled Right Wing Hate & Are Thus A Threat To National Security!
• BREAKING: Fox News Is The Real President
• Don't Let Chuck Todd Fool Ya. The GOP Really Is Very Very Bad
• Chuck Todd: Spreading Lies By Sanitizing Right Wing Nuts Talking Points
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story
• Trump's Terrorist Attack On the Press (With Fox News Support)
• Fox News Has Literally Been Created For Obstruction Of Justice (i.e. Choosing Party Over Country Is What They Are All About)
• The Ultimate Proofs That Fox News Is Basically Just A Group Of White Supremacists/Nationalists/Nazis
• The Infowars Style Group Of Hate & Violence Mongers, Include Fox News & Fox Business!
• Fox News Is A MAINSTREAM Fearmongering Media Channel Mistakenly Labelled Real News Followed By A Bunch Of Sheep Who Don't/Can't See The Con!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Southern Strategy By The GOP Created Modern Politics But They Continuously Get Away With It!
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny: The Paul Ryan Example, i.e. "Paul Ryan Is A Bad Person", So Why Won't The Media Tell The American People?
• The Main Political Commentators At Fox News & Alex Jones (Infowars) Are Now Joined At The Hip
• How Media Enables The GOP's Southern Strategy: The Puerto Rico & Hurricane Maria Example
• NRA, Infowars, Fox News, Breitbart And Sinclair Function As A Terrorist Propaganda Wing Of The GOP That Seeks To Build Hate & Muddy The Waters (Kinda Like State TV)
• Note - Gerrymandering Is A Subset Of "Rigging Elections" Or "Election Fraud", An Important Aspect That Gets Left Out Of Media Coverage
• Fox News - And Right Wing Media - Is Nothing More Than A Conspiracy & Nazi-Style Propaganda Ring
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - Making Russia Seem Worse Than The GOP (& How Russia & The Right-Wing/GOP Are Really In A Symbiotic Relationship!)
• Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Ongoing Iraq War Lies Coverup By Richard Engel & NBC
• The Right Wing Are Basically Terrorists Or "Terrorist Creators" (Alt Right Terrorists Is The Politically Correct Term)
• The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story (Choosing Politeness Over Saving Lives?)
• The Liars & Bullshitters Of The Iraq War (Such As John Bolton) Are Still Treated With Respect By Mainstream Media (Despite Being Constantly Wrong... Its Like Being Respectful To Nazis Because They Are Americans)
• FLASHBACK: The Tea Party Wasn't Authentic Because Outside Groups (Fox News & The Kochs) Created, Organized And Spread It
• Outlining The Kochs Treasonous Agenda: Proofs That The Koch Brothers OWN The Right Wing & Thus The GOP Could Be Renamed "KOCH"
• NBC/MSNBC's Hidden Role As "The Rights, Left"
• CNN's Model For Reporting & Journalism Has A Problem With Conveying The Whole Truth Based On Facts To Its Viewers Because Of Its "Both Sides" Format That Places Outright Lies On the Same Footing With Facts On Their "Facts First" Apple-Banana Channel
• An Introduction To, & Overview Of, The Mainstream Corporate Media
• FCC's Anti-Constitutional Push Under Trump To Cut Of Net Neutrality To Increase Authoritarianism
• BREAKING... The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It OR Real Economics VS Fake Economics: How The Kochs Are Destroying America By Attacking Its Societal Structures In Favor Of Social Darwinism Or "Survival Of The Fittest"
• Trump's America: The GOP Sentences At Least 15,000 To 17,000 Americans To Death EVERY YEAR! (i.e. The Effects Of 13 Million Uninsured)
• How "Liberal" Media Helps The GOP With It's Fake Healthcare (More Examples Of The Corporate Media's Coverups)
• Corporate Media's Iraq War Coverup: Incontrovertible Proof Of Network News & The Beltway Media Covering Facts About The Iraq War For Their GOP Masters
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