"Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often have we not seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history." - Carl Jung
News outlets disproportionately focus on “we hope they die” comment against police from approximately five individuals
After two deputies were shot in an ambush in Compton, California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) tweeted that protesters were blocking the entrance to the emergency room and yelling, “We hope they die.” LASD’s tweet was amplified by right-wing media figures and spread to mainstream media, with some using the incident to criticize ongoing nationwide protests against police violence even though the number of protesters on the scene appeared to be in the single digits.
The story gained additional media attention after sheriff’s deputies outside the hospital arrested KPCC and LAist reporter Josie Huang. On Twitter, LASD falsely alleged that Huang did not identify herself as a journalist, though video she recorded shows Huang identifying herself as press “at least five separate times,” in addition to a lanyard displaying her credentials, while deputies apparently tried to destroy the footage by stepping on her phone. Huang was reportedly released from custody with a citation for obstruction, “visible bruises and scrapes, a sore shoulder and a blackened eye.”
NBC’s Todaycovered the sheriff’s department’s claim that “a small group of protesters arrived chanting, ‘Death to cops,’” and a screenshot of the protesters shows an extremely small group surrounded by law enforcement. An additional video of the incident raises further doubt that the small group of individuals actually blocked anything or led any chants, although one person does say “I hope they die.”
Despite the tiny number of protesters, the incident was deemed worthy of coverage across multiple segments onCNNandMSNBC since the LASD’s tweet early Sunday morning. Suggesting the sensationalism at play, “We hope they die” was also a TMZ headline.
In one cable news segment, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough suggested that all “25 million peaceful protesters” who support the Black Lives Matter movement had to answer for the insensitive comments of these few individuals.
CNN’s Josh Campbell reported that “authorities say that some in the crowd were chanting some disparaging things about the deputies, including indications that they wanted them to die,” and that “a small group that we saw on video that appeared to be blocking the entrance,” before moving on to cover LASD misleading the public on Huang’s arrest.
Several print outlets also lent credence to the overhyped police claim. The Wall Street Journal headlined an editorial with the offensive quote, denouncing the “cultural poison nurtured by the left-wing anti-police movement sweeping the country.” The Los Angeles Times editorial board included the anecdote in an editorial calling for peace. USA Today also credulously included LASD’s tweet in a report on the shooting, even though the same article later acknowledged that video from LAist showed the sheriff’s department had lied about its arrest of Huang.
Amid a quasi-fascist rant Wednesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson responded to murder charges against a pro-Trump teenager who crossed state lines and shot to death two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by asking, “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” Several other Fox personalities have similarly downplayed or seemingly excused the deadly Tuesday night confrontation.
Fox’s turn toward advocating violent right-wing vigilantism is a horrifying but natural evolution for the network. Its personalities have spent the last several months recklessly issuing dire warnings to their viewers, telling them that their lives are in jeopardy from racial justice protesters and that the Democratic leaders of cities facing civil unrest are refusing to protect them. This fearmongering has repeatedly inspired President Donald Trump, an avid Fox viewer, to dump more fuel on the fires.
The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor forced a national reckoning on race and policing that continues to this day. For months, protesters in cities across the country have marched to call for an end to systemic racism and police brutality. The movement has spurred corporate changes and government reforms, even as protests have at times been marred by looting, property damage, and violent confrontations with law enforcement personnel, often escalated by their use of violent tactics.
Throughout this period, Fox has been laser-focused on finding instances of violence, blaming them on the protesters, and castigating Democratic mayors and governors for failing to stop them. The network has bombarded its viewers -- including the president -- with images of burning buildings and civil unrest. At times using weeks-old footage and other misinformation tactics, Fox personalities have inflated the scope of the damage to depict a nation on the brink, denouncing the supposed threat posed by “antifa" agitators, Black Lives Matter activists, and statue-toppling vigilantes -- even demanding that violent protesters be treated as “domestic terrorists.” And they have sought to use that demagoguery to shore up Trump’s faltering campaign, warning that civilization itself will be on the ballot in November.
Carlson has led the charge. He has described the protests as an “ancient battle” between “normal people” and “thugs.” He has claimed that the protesters are engaged in “the destruction of our cities and our history” and are “trying to topple our political system.” And he has called for protest leaders to be labeled “domestic terrorists,” arrested, and paraded “in front of cameras like MS-13.” Moreover, he has denounced Republican leaders who he believes have been overly supportive of the protests, while repeatedly demanding that Trump take a harder line against them.
At one point, his program even predicted a rise in vigilantism. On Carlson’s June 4 broadcast, former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright denounced Democrats for supporting protests while opposing the use of the National Guard or military to put them down. “What does that leave, Tucker? Let me tell you what it leaves. Vigilante justice,” he concluded. “That’s exactly right,” Carlson responded. Wright added, “It's you and me and everybody watching this program arming ourselves. Is that how we run a republic? No sir, it is not, and you do not want a country that goes there.”
Carlson’s venom has cost him more of his shrinking base of advertisers, but in fact it's what Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch want from him -- he apparently retains their support.
The president, whose administration is heavily influenced by Carlson’s show, has been watching. He has triggered escalating violence by trying to push Fox’s narratives for his own political benefit, first with angry Fox live tweets lashing out at protesters and the Democratic officeholders he claimed were coddling them, then with a speech at Mount Rushmore attacking “the violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats,” and finally with a “law and order” strategy that went around those officeholders by sending heavily armed federal paramilitaries into an American city.
All week long, that dire portrait of the country has been at the center of the Republican National Convention. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who became a Fox News cause celebre but were charged with a felony weapons count after pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters earlier this year, spoke on Tuesday night. “Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” Patricia McCloskey told the convention. In his own speech the following evening, Vice President Mike Pence pushed the same message. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” he warned.
This isn’t the first time that Fox has sought to help Republicans to political victory by warning their viewers that Democratic victories could lead to a threat to their safety. As the midterm elections approached in 2018, the network’s commentators began claiming that “the average citizen, if you're on the right, should be concerned and in danger” because Democrats had “normalized violence in America.” A few weeks later, a Trump superfan started mailing bombs to prominent Democrats and journalists.
On Tuesday, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha spurred protests inflected with violence, Carlson again raised the temperature, telling his audience, “Joe Biden's voters really are a threat to you and your family.” That’s a sick statement, but one entirely in line with what his network has been pumping out for months. If you believe what he was saying, you very well might decide that the best response is to arm yourself, drive to a protest in a nearby city, and go looking for trouble. And if you do, there’s no telling what might happen next.
Fox News is now mainstreaming a proposition that ought to be morally beyond the pale: that an armed 17-year old who traveled from his home in Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and killed two people during ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, was justified and somehow acting in “defense” of either himself and/or local property.
A 17-year old from Antioch, Illinois, was arrested in his hometown for shooting and killing two people in Kenosha, during ongoing protests following the police shooting of an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake. The shootings were captured in graphic video footage, appearing to show the 17-year-old firing on a crowd of people attempting to subdue him after an initial shooting.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the suspected shooter’s social media presence indicated that he considered himself to be part of a self-styled militia, and that the armed vigilante group was openly supported by police who tossed them water bottles.
In an interview with The Daily Caller, conducted before the shooting occurred, the suspected shooter declared: “If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle, because I’ve gotta' protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson became the most prominent media personality to voice support for the suspected shooter, declaring on the August 26 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight that the killings were the result of the protests and civil unrest themselves: “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
Others in the right-wing media sphere have been avidlypromoting vigilante violence in Kenosha. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who reportedlypromoted militia activity in Kenosha prior to the vigilante shooting, subsequently defended the alleged shooter,claiming thatthe crowd of people he shot into were “rioters” who were trying to “murder him.” Others such as The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoftmocked protestersfor calling for the police after someone was shot. And many seized on the violence to attack or fearmonger about activists or the left.
On Fox, Carlson was not the only figure to elevate pro-vigilante rhetoric to the major cable network:
The Five co-host Jesse Watters referred to the killings as “vigilante justice” and incorrectly grouped the shooter among “business owners [who] send in people or go in themselves to protect their small business that they've worked their lives to make work.” Co-host Juan Williams then sought to correct the record by pointing out that the alleged killer had in fact traveled in from out of town, “so he was there as a provocative act.” Watters interrupted: “And I totally condemn that. And sadly, Juan, because of the situation, you're going to have people come into communities and try to protect communities when the government doesn't.”
On the same edition of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld declared that people who had opposed police crackdowns on the protests, such as his co-host Williams, had “abdicated the responsibility” over the matter to “militias” and “defenders of property.” He continued: “Because once the police are not allowed to act, the rioting can proceed without consequence. People come in and fill the void.”
Martha MacCallum, the “straight news” anchor of Fox’s The Story with Martha MacCallum, also suggested that the shooter was simply part of a group defending “their businesses” even though the shooter was from out of state. MacCallum argued, “Here you have a 17-year-old out in the street with a gun, and it's understandable that people want to protect their businesses, but this just looks like total chaos and anarchy.”
The next morning, Fox & Friends displayed a friendly image of the shooter cleaning graffiti off of a wall above a chyron noting that he had been charged with homicide.
On Outnumbered, co-host Katie Pavlich justified vigilante actions and suggested local leaders were partly to blame for the shootings, arguing, “When you have no police around to defend businesses and people who are being attacked, and their livelihoods burned to the ground, then there is a void that is filled.” Fellow co-host Melissa Francis agreed: “That's a great point, the vigilantes are just as much the fault of those local leaders who have failed so miserably.”
Pavlich and Francis later attempted to walk back their comments when questioned by co-host Chris Wallace.
An armed individual shot three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last night -- killing two and seriously injuring the third -- amid an uprising following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man. The suspected shooter has now been identified as a 17-year-old who reportedly “considered himself a militia member trying to protect life and property.” Even before these details of the August 25 vigilante shooting were known, figures across the right-wing media ecosystem began hyping the violence, defending the alleged shooter, and using the deadly incident to fearmonger about activists and “the left.”
On August 23, Blake, a 29-year-old father of six, was reportedly breaking up an altercation between two other individuals when Kenosha police arrived, responding to a call about a domestic incident. As video footage of the police shooting shows, Blake was walking away from the scene and trying to get in his car when a police officer grabbed his T-shirt and shot him multiple times in the back. Three of his young children were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting. Blake was taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries. He is in stable condition but is paralyzed from the waist down, according to his father.
On August 25, the third night of protests in Kenosha following the unprovoked police shooting, a gunman opened fire into the crowd. David Beth, the county sheriff, said one of the victims was shot in the chest and a second in the head shortly before midnight on Tuesday. The suspect was identified as a 17-year-old, who faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge in Kenosha County and is currently in custody. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist activity, told CBS News that there were militia members at the protest but that it found no evidence from the alleged shooter’s social media that he is connected to any extremist movements. His posts showed that he is very pro-police, often using the phrase “Blue Lives Matter” on his social media accounts. As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the suspected shooter presented himself in interviews and on social media as “a militia member trying to protect life and property.”
Before many of these details were known or the suspect was officially identified, many on the fringes of the right-wing media echo chamber gratuitously shared and hyped graphic videos of the shooting. Others indicated support for armed private citizens or self-styled militias. Across the media ecosystem, many began seizing on the horrific act of violence to fearmonger about racial justice activists and anti-fascists -- and some even suggested the media or Democratic leaders are to blame.
Infowars’ Alex Jones defended violence from armed citizens against protesters
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, host of Infowars, was one of the first to fervently defend the Kenosha shooter. Jones has a history of encouraging right-wing militias to take up arms against any perceived threat. To Jones, last night’s shooting was simply an act of self-preservation against what he described as a “communist overthrow of the country.” In an August 26 live-streamed video posted on the Banned.video platform, he spoke at length defending the alleged shooter, saying the shooting was purely done in self-defense against the “rioters” who were trying to “murder him.”
He also repeatedly cited an article from far-right publication the Nationalist Review, saying that it “did a good job breaking it down.” The article was explicitly written in an attempt to absolve the suspected shooter: “Please note, this article features a lot of videos worth watching that vindicate the actions of [the alleged shooter]. Share this article with anyone that thinks he was in the wrong for his actions.”
Jones encouraged business owners to arm themselves in anticipation of further violence, referencing a shop owner who was knocked unconscious during the protests: “Hey dude, you should have been there with a riot shotgun, OK? I mean, seriously, that’s how you defend your businesses, is with a shotgun.”
Prior to the shooting on Tuesday night, Infowars reportedly promoted a Facebook event seemingly organized in anticipation of the Kenosha protests. The event called for armed citizens to gather to “protect our lives and property,” writing: “Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs? No doubt they are currently planning on the next part of the city to burn tonight.”
In the August 26 Infowars live video, Jones admitted to anticipating the militia attacks: “When the police stand down and you’ve got thousands of people going through neighborhoods burning down houses and businesses, raping and robbing, you’re going to have the vaccum filled with citizens, and you’re going to have street battles.”
The right-wing echo chamber is defending the shooter’s actions and hyping the violence
The Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh tweeted, “People have every right to protect private property while armed. If you attack armed men because you're mad that they're stopping you from lighting buildings on fire, and then you get shot in the process, it's 1000 percent your own fault. I shouldn't need to explain this.”
BlazeTV host and reporter Elijah Schaffer tweeted claiming that the media was “gaslighting” the situation and that the alleged shooter -- who was “also protecting private property from criminals” -- was “a libertarian who said he was in support of the [Black Lives Matter] movement.”
Pro-gun blog Bearing Arms published a post suggesting the shootings may have been done in self-defense and hyping a reported incident in which a protester pointed a gun at Schaffer. The post ended with a warning:
Be armed and prepared to defend yourself and your home. We’ve seen “protestors” in other places venture into residential neighborhoods already, so don’t believe for an instant that there’s no chance of it happening. Based on what we see in Schaffer’s video from Monday, they might even start shooting without even meaning too, so be ready.
Pro-gun blog The Truth About Guns also defended the August 25 shooting, writing that “local residents tooled up open-carry style to protect their homes and businesses from rabid mobs intent on burning, looting and murdering their way through town.” The post also fixated on the graphic videos of the shooting: “There’s video of one reportedly ‘revolutionary’ looter who took a round to the head while trying to loot a car shop. It didn’t go well for him.”
Some are mocking “far-left cop haters” for asking for help after a person was shot in the head
The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft wrote an article that mocked “cop-hating BLM and antifa looters” for shouting to call police after a protester was shot in the head. The post concluded, “Even the far left cop-haters want a police officer around when they need them.”
Far-right commentator Cassandra Fairbanks’ website, District Herald, posted an article headlined: “‘Call the Police’ Trends on Twitter After Kenosha Black Lives Matter Rioter Calls for Help From Law Enforcement Following Shooting.” The subheading on the piece mocked the protesters, saying, “They went from ‘Defund the Police’ to ‘Call the Police’ real fast.”
Many used the shooting to target activists, Democrats, or the media
White nationalist commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “Kenosha doesn’t need your prayers,” claiming that protests were a “baptism by fire for people” to “realize what living in a nation without police is truly like.”
Cheong also tweeted, “An anti-gun lobbyist is furiously masturbating over the footage of gun violence in Kenosha.”
Far-right social media figure Mike Cernovich blamed Democrats, writing, “Now DEMOCRATS OWN all of this. Every death. Every burning building. Every child’s death. … Democrats wanted this”.
Media figure Buck Sexton tweeted, “Democrats’ decision to turn Kenosha into Fallujah isn’t going to play well with Wisconsin soccer moms in November.”
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales tweeted that she “KNEW the media would use” a shooting to “further a race war with no evidence.”
Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe tweeted, “Just watch, the media and the Left are now going to focus on the citizen militias showing up in Kenosha to take the blame off of BLM and Antifa for inciting the violence in the first place.”
The Federalist ran an article headlined “Two Killed During Riots In Wisconsin As Democrat Governor Refuses Federal Assistance.”
Related: Warriors Against Rule Of Law and Equality to All Under The Law
Even after a vigilante gunman shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two popular local conservative media personalities — radio host Vicki McKenna and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke — have continued to encourage armed individuals to take the law into their own hands, and they even laid the groundwork for further vigilante actions.
WILLIAMS: I'm just telling you right now, right-wing -- I'm telling you, I'm telling you this country is really experiencing a wave of right-wing violence. We saw two men killed, two men killed in Kenosha by a young man, 17, who identified himself as part of a militia, pro-police --
MACCALLUM: And he is under investigation. That's a heinous situation and nobody is -- nobody is being supportive of it.
WILLIAMS: And again, Black Lives Matter protesters -- and he should be! But I don't see President Trump -- Martha, has President Trump once said that that young man did something wrong? He's been given every opportunity and never said it.
MACCALLUM: He said it's under investigation. In fact, I just questioned Hogan Gidley about exactly that, that question.
