theintercept--2020-08-27--Protesters in Multiple States Are Facing Felony Charges, Including Terrorism

in several states have responded to mass protests against police brutality by charging demonstrators with committing felonies , including terrorism charges .
The trend of criminalizing protest has been on the uptick since the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock , during and after which numerous states upped charges for protests “ near critical infrastructure ” as felonies .
Since 2016 , 14 states have enacted new laws to restrict the right to peaceful assembly , according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law , which tracks related state and federal legislation .
But in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Black lives , numerous states have increased the severity of criminal penalties for protesters along political lines and are prosecuting them more aggressively , as demonstrations continue with no sign of slowing down .
Just last week , following more than 60 days of demonstrations outside the State Capitol , Tennessee Republican Gov .
Bill Lee signed a law that made it a felony to participate in some types of protests , including camping out overnight on state property .
Charges for the same activity were previously classified as a misdemeanor .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lose their voting rights — making the new law a tool for disenfranchisement .
Earlier this month , police in Muscatine , Iowa , apprehended two people they say were attempting to drive a vehicle into the city Public Safety Building and got stuck on a planter .
They charged both men with numerous counts , including terrorism .
That follows an Oklahoma district attorney ’ s pursuit of terrorism charges against five young people , including three teenagers and two people in their 20s .
The fourth-term prosecutor also threw felony charges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests and damage to local and police property in late May .
The terrorism charges reveal a “ false equivalency between people who kill , and people who commit acts of property damage , ” said Kate Chatfield , policy director at the Justice Collaborative , a policy and media organization focused on mass criminalization and incarceration .
“ Maybe not a great thing.
” “ To say that the power of the state will be wielded in this way against political enemies is incredibly frightening , ” Chatfield said , drawing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many people who had never committed an act of violence were prosecuted for terrorism .
“ Let ’ s not ignore the fact that we have a history of this in this country .
A very recent history .
And a continuing history , unfortunately.
” The nationwide protests prompted by George Floyd ’ s killing have continued through the summer , though at a lower intensity over the last month — before picking back up this week .
Streets across the country swelled with demonstrators after police in Kenosha , Wisconsin , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven times , in front of his children .
Blake is paralyzed from the waist down , his father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday .
Protesters burned down a state Department of Corrections building on Monday .
The following night , armed white members of a militia group organized counterdemonstrations to protect local property .
Video footage from Kenosha shows the militia members chatting with the police .
Shortly after the video was captured , one member of the militia shot and killed two protesters , and left a third in serious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Illinois on Wednesday and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide .
“ When you hear our president talk about Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization , or antifa as a terrorist organization , it is the kind of thing that — his statement holds no weight in law , but it sends a message to prosecutors like this that they ’ ll be supported , ” said Thomas Harvey , justice project director at the Advancement Project , a non-profit civil rights group .
“ And even more frighteningly , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the militia members we saw in Kenosha , and gives them the state and the latitude to commit even more violence than what we see on a daily basis in this country against black and brown folks.
” where police have charged protesters en masse with felonies , prosecutors have swiftly dropped them , calling into question the reasoning behind the original charges .
In Louisville , Kentucky , police arrested 87 protesters who had staged a sit-in on the lawn of a home belonging to state Attorney General Daniel Cameron last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for accountability in the killing of Breonna Taylor , the 26-year-old EMT whom three Louisville police officers shot at least eight times inside her home in March .
( The officers were acting on a no-knock warrant in connection with a suspect who did not live at Taylor ’ s residence .
The police department fired one of the three officers who were involved in June .
Local activists including Louisville Black Lives Matter worked with Taylor ’ s family to develop a list of demands , including firing , charging , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days later , Jefferson County Attorney Mike O ’ Connell dismissed the felony charges and said his office would consider misdemeanors and other violations for prosecution at a later date .
On Tuesday , Louisville police arrested another 68 protesters and charged them with obstructing a highway and disorderly conduct , both misdemeanors .
Earlier this month in Washington , D.C. , police arrested 41 protesters in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on charges of felony rioting and assaulting police officers .
The Metropolitan Police Department said in a tweet on August 14 that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rioting behaviors.
” Between May 30 and June 1 , District police arrested more than 100 people on charges of burglary , destroying property , and violating curfew , including at least 40 charges of felony rioting .
Prosecutors dropped most of the charges in both sets of arrests .
In Salt Lake City on Friday , a judge dropped possible life sentence charges facing protesters who poured paint , broke windows , and posted signs at the District Attorney ’ s Office building , reducing some charges to lower-class felonies and misdemeanors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and FBI agents arrested two men in Salt Lake who had allegedly threatened officers and were headed to protests armed with multiple weapons .
Prosecutors later charged one man with terrorism .
Also in early June , police officers in Columbia , South Carolina , arrested more than 80 protesters and charged three men with instigating a riot , typically a low-level felony or misdemeanor .
Elected officials participating in the protest have also been caught in the crackdown .
In Portsmouth , Virginia , on Monday , sheriff ’ s deputies delivered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , after a resident pressed misdemeanor criminal charges against her for calling on the Portsmouth police chief to resign .
Earlier this month , police brought felony charges against the Virginia State Senate pro tempore , a local school board member , local NAACP leaders , and public defenders for injury to a monument and conspiracy , in relation to the destruction of confederate statues in June .
Federal authorities have also carried out their own crackdown on demonstrations , arresting protesters in Portland , Oregon , and New York City in recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 300 domestic terrorism investigations since late May .
Last year , according to the agency , most federal arrests for domestic terrorism involved white supremacy , though the FBI ’ s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit has also investigated a fictional “ black identity extremists ” movement .
The FBI has also quietly investigated white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement in recent years , The Intercept reported .
Among the most serious recent charges against protesters are those of terrorism in Oklahoma .
There , Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater charged three teenagers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with terrorism related to their alleged activity during protests in late May .
“ We found it especially inappropriate — and unconstitutional — because it was made with the explicit purpose of silencing protesters who are standing up for Black lives , ” American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Staff Attorney Megan Lambert told The Intercept .
“ We didn ’ t even see terrorism charges for the Murrah bombing , ” she added , referring to the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City .
The terrorism charges , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stem from allegations that protesters set fire to a sheriff ’ s van and caused damage to a local bail bond business .
Last month , Prater charged two other teenagers with terrorism in connection to demonstrations at the end of May , bringing the total to five .
The DA also charged multiple people with rioting , assaulting officers , and at least five others for incitement to riot for painting murals in the city ’ s downtown area in June .
Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Alicia Andrews , the ACLU of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter founder and Executive Director Rev .
T. Sheri Dickerson slammed Prater ’ s move , saying that the charges of terrorism were far too harsh .
During a press conference early last month , Andrews said she didn ’ t condone vandalism or destruction of property but that Prater was using the charges to silence protesters .
“ ‘ Use your First Amendment right in a way that we don ’ t like , and we will ruin your future.
’ These charges are an attempt to send a message , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black lives , ’ ” she said .
Prater took office in 2007 and is currently serving his fourth term as DA .
His current term ends in 2023 .
He started his career in law enforcement at age 19 as a deputy sheriff , according to his bio .
“ These people are speaking out against violence that Prater himself has largely been complicit in , ” Lambert said .
“ This is just another example in a pattern from David Prater ’ s office of upholding white supremacy.
” Prater ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ request for comment .
Back in 2013 , Prater filed terrorism charges against environmental protesters who hung a banner and dropped glitter at the offices of an oil and gas company .
Prater declined to charge officers who killed 17-year-old Isaiah Lewis , who was in the middle of a mental health crisis when police shot him in Edmond last May .
Over the last few months , local activists have brought renewed attention to Lewis ’ s killing , which has been a focus of some demonstrations in the area .
Other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed out .
Derrick Scott , 42 , died last May after being apprehended and restrained by Oklahoma City police .
In video footage of the arrest released in June , Scott tells officers he can ’ t breathe and asks them repeatedly to give him his medicine .
An officer replies , “ I don ’ t care.
” “ The Scott family is not receiving any justice , ” Dickerson said , adding that Scott ’ s killing was eerily similar to Floyd ’ s .
Earlier this month , police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , saying that he had a weapon in his hand ( Oklahoma is an open-carry state ) .
Harmon is still in the hospital .
“ Systemic racism , institutional racism , and white supremacy is so deep-rooted , ” Dickerson said , agreeing with Lambert ’ s characterization of Prater ’ s office .
“ There ’ s really nothing more Oklahoman than that.
” “ This was a state that was formed basically for them to literally lump Natives and Blacks here together , ” she said .
“ And so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deliberate , for us to be victims of what I consider state-sanctioned violence and state-targeted violence.
” For the Oklahoma City teens and young adults facing terror charges , “ what ’ s next is they fight for their lives , ” Lambert said .
The statute carries a maximum of life in prison .
“ Many of these charged protesters are young teenagers .
… So they are facing spending their entire lives in prison simply for , in some cases , attending a protest to try and hold police accountable.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get those charges dropped or significantly reduced .
“ Some of the young people were saying , ‘ We should go to Kenosha and stand with the young people there , ” Dickerson said .
“ And I was like , ‘ How do you choose ?
’ ”

Prosecutors and lawmakers in several states have responded to mass protests against police brutality by charging demonstrators with committing felonies, including terrorism charges. The trend of criminalizing protest has been on the uptick since the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, during and after which numerous states upped charges for protests “near critical infrastructure” as felonies.
Since 2016, 14 states have enacted new laws to restrict the right to peaceful assembly, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which tracks related state and federal legislation. But in the wake of the nationwide movement in support of Black lives, numerous states have increased the severity of criminal penalties for protesters along political lines and are prosecuting them more aggressively, as demonstrations continue with no sign of slowing down.
Just last week, following more than 60 days of demonstrations outside the State Capitol, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a law that made it a felony to participate in some types of protests, including camping out overnight on state property. Charges for the same activity were previously classified as a misdemeanor. In Tennessee, people convicted of felonies lose their voting rights — making the new law a tool for disenfranchisement.
Earlier this month, police in Muscatine, Iowa, apprehended two people they say were attempting to drive a vehicle into the city Public Safety Building and got stuck on a planter. They charged both men with numerous counts, including terrorism. That follows an Oklahoma district attorney’s pursuit of terrorism charges against five young people, including three teenagers and two people in their 20s. The fourth-term prosecutor also threw felony charges at numerous other people in relation to protests and damage to local and police property in late May.
The terrorism charges reveal a “false equivalency between people who kill, and people who commit acts of property damage,” said Kate Chatfield, policy director at the Justice Collaborative, a policy and media organization focused on mass criminalization and incarceration. “Maybe not a great thing.”
“To say that the power of the state will be wielded in this way against political enemies is incredibly frightening,” Chatfield said, drawing a parallel to the post-9/11 era, when many people who had never committed an act of violence were prosecuted for terrorism. “Let’s not ignore the fact that we have a history of this in this country. A very recent history. And a continuing history, unfortunately.”
The nationwide protests prompted by George Floyd’s killing have continued through the summer, though at a lower intensity over the last month — before picking back up this week. Streets across the country swelled with demonstrators after police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back seven times, in front of his children. Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, his father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday. Protesters burned down a state Department of Corrections building on Monday. The following night, armed white members of a militia group organized counterdemonstrations to protect local property. Video footage from Kenosha shows the militia members chatting with the police. Shortly after the video was captured, one member of the militia shot and killed two protesters, and left a third in serious condition. Police arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse in Illinois on Wednesday and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide.
“When you hear our president talk about Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization, or antifa as a terrorist organization, it is the kind of thing that — his statement holds no weight in law, but it sends a message to prosecutors like this that they’ll be supported,” said Thomas Harvey, justice project director at the Advancement Project, a non-profit civil rights group. “And even more frighteningly, I think it sends a message to people like the militia members we saw in Kenosha, and gives them the state and the latitude to commit even more violence than what we see on a daily basis in this country against black and brown folks.”
In some states where police have charged protesters en masse with felonies, prosecutors have swiftly dropped them, calling into question the reasoning behind the original charges.
In Louisville, Kentucky, police arrested 87 protesters who had staged a sit-in on the lawn of a home belonging to state Attorney General Daniel Cameron last month — part of an ongoing call for accountability in the killing of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT whom three Louisville police officers shot at least eight times inside her home in March. (The officers were acting on a no-knock warrant in connection with a suspect who did not live at Taylor’s residence. The police department fired one of the three officers who were involved in June. Local activists including Louisville Black Lives Matter worked with Taylor’s family to develop a list of demands, including firing, charging, and convicting the three officers.) Three days later, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell dismissed the felony charges and said his office would consider misdemeanors and other violations for prosecution at a later date. On Tuesday, Louisville police arrested another 68 protesters and charged them with obstructing a highway and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
In some states where police have charged protesters en masse with felonies, prosecutors have swiftly dropped them, calling into question the reasoning behind the original charges.
Earlier this month in Washington, D.C., police arrested 41 protesters in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on charges of felony rioting and assaulting police officers. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a tweet on August 14 that it only arrested people “engaged in rioting behaviors.” Between May 30 and June 1, District police arrested more than 100 people on charges of burglary, destroying property, and violating curfew, including at least 40 charges of felony rioting. Prosecutors dropped most of the charges in both sets of arrests.
In Salt Lake City on Friday, a judge dropped possible life sentence charges facing protesters who poured paint, broke windows, and posted signs at the District Attorney’s Office building, reducing some charges to lower-class felonies and misdemeanors. In June, West Valley police and FBI agents arrested two men in Salt Lake who had allegedly threatened officers and were headed to protests armed with multiple weapons. Prosecutors later charged one man with terrorism.
Also in early June, police officers in Columbia, South Carolina, arrested more than 80 protesters and charged three men with instigating a riot, typically a low-level felony or misdemeanor.
Elected officials participating in the protest have also been caught in the crackdown. In Portsmouth, Virginia, on Monday, sheriff’s deputies delivered a summons charge to the vice mayor, after a resident pressed misdemeanor criminal charges against her for calling on the Portsmouth police chief to resign. Earlier this month, police brought felony charges against the Virginia State Senate pro tempore, a local school board member, local NAACP leaders, and public defenders for injury to a monument and conspiracy, in relation to the destruction of confederate statues in June.
Federal authorities have also carried out their own crackdown on demonstrations, arresting protesters in Portland, Oregon, and New York City in recent months. The FBI has opened some 300 domestic terrorism investigations since late May. Last year, according to the agency, most federal arrests for domestic terrorism involved white supremacy, though the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit has also investigated a fictional “black identity extremists” movement. The FBI has also quietly investigated white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement in recent years, The Intercept reported.
Among the most serious recent charges against protesters are those of terrorism in Oklahoma. There, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater charged three teenagers and two other people in their 20s with terrorism related to their alleged activity during protests in late May.
“We found it especially inappropriate — and unconstitutional — because it was made with the explicit purpose of silencing protesters who are standing up for Black lives,” American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Staff Attorney Megan Lambert told The Intercept, regarding the recent terrorism charges. “We didn’t even see terrorism charges for the Murrah bombing,” she added, referring to the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
The terrorism charges, which were filed in June and July, stem from allegations that protesters set fire to a sheriff’s van and caused damage to a local bail bond business. Last month, Prater charged two other teenagers with terrorism in connection to demonstrations at the end of May, bringing the total to five. The DA also charged multiple people with rioting, assaulting officers, and at least five others for incitement to riot for painting murals in the city’s downtown area in June.
Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Alicia Andrews, the ACLU of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City Black Lives Matter founder and Executive Director Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson slammed Prater’s move, saying that the charges of terrorism were far too harsh. During a press conference early last month, Andrews said she didn’t condone vandalism or destruction of property but that Prater was using the charges to silence protesters. “‘Use your First Amendment right in a way that we don’t like, and we will ruin your future.’ These charges are an attempt to send a message, ‘We’re tired of hearing about Black lives,’” she said.
Prater took office in 2007 and is currently serving his fourth term as DA. His current term ends in 2023. He started his career in law enforcement at age 19 as a deputy sheriff, according to his bio. “These people are speaking out against violence that Prater himself has largely been complicit in,” Lambert said. “This is just another example in a pattern from David Prater’s office of upholding white supremacy.” Prater’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“Many of these charged protesters are young teenagers. … So they are facing spending their entire lives in prison simply for, in some cases, attending a protest to try and hold police accountable.”
Last May, Prater declined to charge officers who killed 17-year-old Isaiah Lewis, who was in the middle of a mental health crisis when police shot him in Edmond. Over the last few months, local activists have brought renewed attention to Lewis’s killing, which has been a focus of some demonstrations in the area. Other cases have gotten less attention, Dickerson pointed out. Derrick Scott, 42, died last May after being apprehended and restrained by Oklahoma City police. In video footage of the arrest released in June, Scott tells officers he can’t breathe and asks them repeatedly to give him his medicine. An officer replies, “I don’t care.”
“The Scott family is not receiving any justice,” Dickerson said, adding that Scott’s killing was eerily similar to Floyd’s. Earlier this month, police shot 32-year-old James Harmon in the head, saying that he had a weapon in his hand (Oklahoma is an open-carry state). Harmon is still in the hospital.
“Systemic racism, institutional racism, and white supremacy is so deep-rooted,” Dickerson said, agreeing with Lambert’s characterization of Prater’s office. “There’s really nothing more Oklahoman than that.”
“This was a state that was formed basically for them to literally lump Natives and Blacks here together,” she said. “And so it has always been very intentional and deliberate, for us to be victims of what I consider state-sanctioned violence and state-targeted violence.”
For the Oklahoma City teens and young adults facing terror charges, “what’s next is they fight for their lives,” Lambert said. The statute carries a maximum of life in prison. “Many of these charged protesters are young teenagers. … So they are facing spending their entire lives in prison simply for, in some cases, attending a protest to try and hold police accountable.” Criminal defense attorneys are still working to get those charges dropped or significantly reduced.
“Some of the young people were saying, ‘We should go to Kenosha and stand with the young people there,” Dickerson said. “And I was like, ‘How do you choose?’”
Correction: Aug. 28, 2020
A previous version of this article referenced terrorism charges brought by the Oklahoma City prosecutor against environmental protesters in 2013. While police officers initially booked the protesters on such charges, the prosecutor declined to file them. The reference has been removed.


theintercept--2020-08-27--Alex Morse Has a Second Opponent: Local Media

, the Daily Collegian , the student paper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst , lit a fuse that would explode the sleepy primary race in Massachusetts ’ 1st District between Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and incumbent Rep. Richie Neal .
The outlines and accusations by now are well known — the College Democrats had disinvited Morse from any events that might be scheduled in the future , on account of what they described as inappropriate attention he was paying to students — and the local press made sure that western Massachusetts readers were kept fully abreast of the accusations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Springfield Republican , also known as Masslive , ran , for instance , 16 stories featuring the mayor , all but one focused on the allegations and resulting fallout , according to a review of local media coverage by The Intercept .
Other local outlets followed suit .
On August 10 , Albany , New York-based NPR affiliate WAMC News devoted 40 minutes to the allegations on the channel ’ s daily politics program “ The Roundtable.
” The panel show exhaustively covered the topic , with lobbyist Libby Post , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump and other politicians with sex scandals .
“ Men have a problem at times with controlling their — keeping it in their pants is the best I can put it — and it becomes a priority over doing their jobs , ” said Post .
By August 12 , however , The Intercept had discovered that the claims were part of a long-running plan by students to take down the mayor and on August 14 reported that Massachusetts Democrats Chair Gus Bickford and Executive Director Veronica Martinez facilitated the letter ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state party attorney Jim Roosevelt and offering the students tips in dealing with the press .
While the allegations in the letter had received heavy play on local radio , television , and print media , those later revelations did not , even after the state party was pressured by its rank and file into announcing an internal investigation into its own conduct .
On local television , the issue continued to play out as he said , he said , with the unsubstantiated allegations of the college students given a full airing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Chyrons in clips reviewed by The Intercept from local stations WWLP , Western Mass News , and CBS 3 emphasized Morse ’ s “ sexual misconduct ” and the existence of an “ official investigation ” into the mayor from both the Holyoke City Council and UMass .
The conspiracy angle — the fact that the accusations were part of a long-running scheme by students , with the aid of the state party , to take down the Morse campaign — was barely mentioned .
While the scheme imploded spectacularly , earning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times , it may still have worked .
By airing out the allegations so prominently , particularly in the local media , advocates for Neal were able to materially damage Morse , with internal polls showing a spike in the number of voters who held a negative view of the Holyoke mayor — voters who may otherwise have been persuadable as Morse surged into the final month of the campaign .
Those voters , if they ’ ve relied on local media for their news , would have little way of knowing Morse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revealed the scheme , Masslive put the story on the back burner .
Of the next 15 stories it published on the race through August 21 , just six touched on the fallout from the MassDems revelations .
Instead , the Republican covered the race from a number of more traditional angles , focusing on endorsements , issue positions , and polling .
When the Republican did cover the scandal , it largely continued to focus on Morse ’ s alleged wrongdoing .
The paper ’ s story from August 16 was headlined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , UMass policy ‘ strongly discourages ’ faculty-student relationships.
” That article focused on the allegations from the letter and linked the accusations to the # MeToo movement — including name-dropping rapist Harvey Weinstein — but made no mention of the revelations that Mass Dems were involved in the scheme or that the party had exploded into an uproar , and rank and file were demanding resignations .
It only mentioned in passing that Morse insisted that he had never dated a student he taught or supervised , a charge that had never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” an influential public affairs program in the region , regularly features WAMC president and executive director Alan Chartock , who has been in the position since 1981 and is also a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York .
Chartock , a near-daily guest on “ The Roundtable , ” has made little secret of his preference in the race , penning an endorsement of the incumbent — “ a personal hero of mine , ” Chartock wrote — for online outlet the Berkshire Edge on August @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of three interviews with Morse and two days before WAMC aired both the “ Roundtable ” discussion of the allegations and a series of interviews with Neal .
“ If there was ever a time to keep Richie Neal where he is , ” wrote Chartock , “ this is it.
” For the head of a major local media outlet — WAMC stretches nearly the entirety of upstate New York and from western Massachusetts to Pennsylvania and has substantial reach and influence in the 1st District — to take such a strong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as he interviews both candidates and lends his voice to a daily morning political talk show on the radio station is unusual by mainstream media standards .
“ Roundtable ” host Joe Donahue assured The Intercept in an email that Chartock ’ s endorsement of Neal was “ separate and distinct ” from the opinions he offered on Neal and Morse on air .
“ What Alan writes in his columns is separate and distinct from what he says on the radio .
He has made it clear again and again that WAMC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donahue .
Chartock , who had been blind copied on the note , replied-all : “ Terrific !
” Donahue added that Chartock was but a “ voice among many ” on “ The Roundtable , ” which usually features a cast of four guests , of which Chartock is almost always one .
The rotating panel includes MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance , University of Albany adjunct professor Rosemary Armao , and others .
Donahue told The Intercept that the “ opinions of our participants have no role in news making decisions.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the column , coming in the midst of the scandal and before Chartock ’ s interviews with Neal aired , might affect coverage received no response .
Donald Shaw , founder and editor at investigative news site Sludge , saw strong parallels between Chartock ’ s questions to Morse in the interviews in early August and Neal campaign talking points .
The main line of attack has centered on Morse ’ s unimpressive attendance record at school board meetings — an attack line Neal has made central to his debate strategy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ organized their ad campaigns around the school board attendance question .
The debate on August 18 took place after revelations of MassDems involvement in the hit on Morse and opened with a newsy back and forth between the candidates , with Neal denying foreknowledge of the attack .
The two went on to debate their considerable ideological differences on everything from pandemic relief to Medicare for All and the Green New Deal .
Masslive headlined its coverage : “ Alex Morse challenged on school committee attendance record during debate with Richard Neal.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morse that has dogged him for years has resurfaced again , ” the debate review began .
“ His attendance record at school committee meetings.
” editor with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , or FAIR , called the decline in local news coverage once the story moved to more uncertain ground revealing of media priorities .
“ It ’ s a real tell when a story becomes less newsworthy as it becomes more interesting , ” said Naureckas .
“ The evidence of party skullduggery aimed at torpedoing a popular progressive challenger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made the initial story more compelling , not less.
” Naureckas suggested that the shift in coverage may well have to do with what delving into the story could show readers and viewers about the political system .
“ It boils down to what kind of power corporate media is more excited about examining : the power of a college professor over his students , or the power of our political establishment over our elections ?
” he said .
“ The level of journalistic enthusiasm suggests the answer.
” Such coverage choices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prurience , ” FAIR Program Director Janine Jackson told The Intercept .
“ Much easier — and cheaper — to tell a story that waves toward ‘ sex , gay sex !
’ and some notion of progressive hypocrisy , ” said Jackson .
“ The more complex story of the fight to beat back progressive change in the party takes more thought , asks more of audiences , and doesn ’ t segue as well into a Cheetos commercial.
” Meanwhile , some local outlets are simply ignoring the story now that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sex scandal .
On Saturday , the Berkshire Eagle — where this reporter worked from 2016 to 2017 — endorsed Neal , making no mention of the MassDems and College Democrats plot and asking voters to vote for Neal despite what the paper described as a “ crucial question as to how sizable contributions from sectors like Big Pharma and private equity affect Rep. Neal ’ s use of the considerable power he has amassed on Capitol Hill.
” No matter , the paper said , the time for asking those questions will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the largest Democratic recipient of corporate cash is a good thing when you really think about it : The onus is on the congressman to better demonstrate to his constituents that he is beholden to their interests and not his donors .
Nevertheless , Rep. Neal ’ s ample fundraising ability is a testament to his place in the leadership in the Democratic Party writ large .
While he was unsurprised that the paper endorsed the incumbent , Morse said it seemed out of step with voters in Pittsfield , where the paper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city councilors endorsed the mayor ’ s campaign .
Mohammed Missouri , executive director of community engagement organization Jetpac , said that the local and state coverage of the race is indicative of deeper issues in Massachusetts media , as well as how the press can hold politicians accountable .
“ Massachusetts is a small state and our news media ’ s deep ties to the state ’ s political establishment makes crucial investigative reporting nearly impossible , ” said Missouri .
“ Many people in politics want our democracy to be more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to local reporters anonymously because there is a genuine lack of trust in whether we have an independent press .
The bias towards establishment political figures is too obvious to ignore.
” Local media for the most part is doing a disservice to the public , argued Morse .
“ There have been a couple of folks who have done their due diligence , but by and large I hear a lot of frustration from voters , supporters , and constituents about how local media was quick to cover the story when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to provide updates , ” he said .
Among those folks is the Daily Hampshire Gazette .
After the publication of this article , some of the paper ’ s readers contacted The Intercept to request the paper ’ s coverage be included in the review .
The Intercept found four articles on the scandal , two of which addressed the allegations and two of which covered the revelations of MassDems involvement in the smear campaign .
The Gazette on Thursday endorsed the mayor .
“ This Tuesday , we urge residents of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just for a man but for a movement , ” the paper editorialized .
“ Western Mass is ready to send a message to the capital that we ’ re done with the status quo.
” The broader media ’ s focus on unsubstantiated and salacious details struck Tanya Neslusan , executive director of Massachusetts-based LGBTQ rights organization MassEquality , as disturbing for what they indicated about internal bias .
“ I find it extremely disconcerting that certain media outlets were willing to publish the vague accusations that had been released by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment to check the facts and verify the claims , ” said Neslusan .
“ The fact that the first impulse was to publish unfounded allegations , that fed right into homophobic tropes , is exactly the reason why MassEquality and other LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations still need to exist.
” To Nancy Stenberg , female caucus representative to the Democratic State Committee for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District , local media ’ s emphasis on the allegations , and lack of interest in the more complex story of how the accusations were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deeper biases .
“ The homophobic bias in mainstream reporting against Alex Morse is insidious and pathological , ” Stenberg told The Intercept .
“ Whether this is a result of a desire to manipulate the outcome of an election or even worse — to destroy the future of a decent , honest , hard-working person — this is not what the calling of the media is supposed to be .
”

On August 7 , the Daily Collegian, the student paper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, lit a fuse that would explode the sleepy primary race in Massachusetts’ 1st District between Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and incumbent Rep. Richie Neal. The outlines and accusations by now are well known — the College Democrats had disinvited Morse from any events that might be scheduled in the future, on account of what they described as inappropriate attention he was paying to students — and the local press made sure that western Massachusetts readers were kept fully abreast of the accusations.
Between August 7 and 13, the Springfield Republican, also known as Masslive, ran, for instance, 16 stories featuring the mayor, all but one focused on the allegations and resulting fallout, according to a review of local media coverage by The Intercept.
Other local outlets followed suit. On August 10, Albany, New York-based NPR affiliate WAMC News devoted 40 minutes to the allegations on the channel’s daily politics program “The Roundtable.” The panel show exhaustively covered the topic, with lobbyist Libby Post, a frequent guest, likening Morse to President Donald Trump and other politicians with sex scandals. “Men have a problem at times with controlling their — keeping it in their pants is the best I can put it — and it becomes a priority over doing their jobs,” said Post.
By August 12, however, The Intercept had discovered that the claims were part of a long-running plan by students to take down the mayor and on August 14 reported that Massachusetts Democrats Chair Gus Bickford and Executive Director Veronica Martinez facilitated the letter’s development, assigning the task to state party attorney Jim Roosevelt and offering the students tips in dealing with the press. While the allegations in the letter had received heavy play on local radio, television, and print media, those later revelations did not, even after the state party was pressured by its rank and file into announcing an internal investigation into its own conduct. On local television, the issue continued to play out as he said, he said, with the unsubstantiated allegations of the college students given a full airing, followed by a denial from Morse. Chyrons in clips reviewed by The Intercept from local stations WWLP, Western Mass News, and CBS 3 emphasized Morse’s “sexual misconduct” and the existence of an “official investigation” into the mayor from both the Holyoke City Council and UMass. The conspiracy angle — the fact that the accusations were part of a long-running scheme by students, with the aid of the state party, to take down the Morse campaign — was barely mentioned.
While the scheme imploded spectacularly, earning a thorough autopsy in the New York Times, it may still have worked. By airing out the allegations so prominently, particularly in the local media, advocates for Neal were able to materially damage Morse, with internal polls showing a spike in the number of voters who held a negative view of the Holyoke mayor — voters who may otherwise have been persuadable as Morse surged into the final month of the campaign.
Those voters, if they’ve relied on local media for their news, would have little way of knowing Morse had been vindicated. After The Intercept revealed the scheme, Masslive put the story on the back burner. Of the next 15 stories it published on the race through August 21, just six touched on the fallout from the MassDems revelations. Instead, the Republican covered the race from a number of more traditional angles, focusing on endorsements, issue positions, and polling.
When the Republican did cover the scandal, it largely continued to focus on Morse’s alleged wrongdoing. The paper’s story from August 16 was headlined, “As Alex Morse defends conduct, UMass policy ‘strongly discourages’ faculty-student relationships.” That article focused on the allegations from the letter and linked the accusations to the #MeToo movement — including name-dropping rapist Harvey Weinstein — but made no mention of the revelations that Mass Dems were involved in the scheme or that the party had exploded into an uproar, and rank and file were demanding resignations. It only mentioned in passing that Morse insisted that he had never dated a student he taught or supervised, a charge that had never been leveled.
Misleading reporting from @PaddyJ1325 @masslivenews. The story isn't about Morse's "conduct" but the conduct of the MA Dem Party which tried to destroy evidence of the smear campaign & hit job they coordinated against the candidate. Most people don't read past headlines but… pic.twitter.com/31enCsmsaP — Katie Halper (@kthalps) August 17, 2020
“The Roundtable,” an influential public affairs program in the region, regularly features WAMC president and executive director Alan Chartock, who has been in the position since 1981 and is also a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York. Chartock, a near-daily guest on “The Roundtable,” has made little secret of his preference in the race, penning an endorsement of the incumbent — “a personal hero of mine,” Chartock wrote — for online outlet the Berkshire Edge on August 8, the day after his last of three interviews with Morse and two days before WAMC aired both the “Roundtable” discussion of the allegations and a series of interviews with Neal. “If there was ever a time to keep Richie Neal where he is,” wrote Chartock, “this is it.”
For the head of a major local media outlet — WAMC stretches nearly the entirety of upstate New York and from western Massachusetts to Pennsylvania and has substantial reach and influence in the 1st District — to take such a strong position in a strongly contested race even as he interviews both candidates and lends his voice to a daily morning political talk show on the radio station is unusual by mainstream media standards. “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue assured The Intercept in an email that Chartock’s endorsement of Neal was “separate and distinct” from the opinions he offered on Neal and Morse on air.
“What Alan writes in his columns is separate and distinct from what he says on the radio. He has made it clear again and again that WAMC does not endorse candidates,” wrote Donahue. Chartock, who had been blind copied on the note, replied-all: “Terrific!”
Donahue added that Chartock was but a “voice among many” on “The Roundtable,” which usually features a cast of four guests, of which Chartock is almost always one. The rotating panel includes MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance, University of Albany adjunct professor Rosemary Armao, and others. Donahue told The Intercept that the “opinions of our participants have no role in news making decisions.” A follow-up question on how the timing of the column, coming in the midst of the scandal and before Chartock’s interviews with Neal aired, might affect coverage received no response.
Donald Shaw, founder and editor at investigative news site Sludge, saw strong parallels between Chartock’s questions to Morse in the interviews in early August and Neal campaign talking points. The main line of attack has centered on Morse’s unimpressive attendance record at school board meetings — an attack line Neal has made central to his debate strategy. Neal’s outside Super PACs have organized their ad campaigns around the school board attendance question.
The debate on August 18 took place after revelations of MassDems involvement in the hit on Morse and opened with a newsy back and forth between the candidates, with Neal denying foreknowledge of the attack. The two went on to debate their considerable ideological differences on everything from pandemic relief to Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Masslive headlined its coverage: “Alex Morse challenged on school committee attendance record during debate with Richard Neal.”
“A criticism of Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse that has dogged him for years has resurfaced again,” the debate review began. “His attendance record at school committee meetings.”
Jim Naureckas, an editor with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, or FAIR, called the decline in local news coverage once the story moved to more uncertain ground revealing of media priorities. “It’s a real tell when a story becomes less newsworthy as it becomes more interesting,” said Naureckas. “The evidence of party skullduggery aimed at torpedoing a popular progressive challenger to a powerful establishment politician should have made the initial story more compelling, not less.”
Naureckas suggested that the shift in coverage may well have to do with what delving into the story could show readers and viewers about the political system. “It boils down to what kind of power corporate media is more excited about examining: the power of a college professor over his students, or the power of our political establishment over our elections?” he said. “The level of journalistic enthusiasm suggests the answer.”
Such coverage choices are an example of “laziness and prurience,” FAIR Program Director Janine Jackson told The Intercept. “Much easier — and cheaper — to tell a story that waves toward ‘sex, gay sex!’ and some notion of progressive hypocrisy,” said Jackson. “The more complex story of the fight to beat back progressive change in the party takes more thought, asks more of audiences, and doesn’t segue as well into a Cheetos commercial.”
“The evidence of party skullduggery aimed at torpedoing a popular progressive challenger to a powerful establishment politician should have made the initial story more compelling, not less.”
Meanwhile, some local outlets are simply ignoring the story now that it’s more complicated than a sex scandal. On Saturday, the Berkshire Eagle — where this reporter worked from 2016 to 2017 — endorsed Neal, making no mention of the MassDems and College Democrats plot and asking voters to vote for Neal despite what the paper described as a “crucial question as to how sizable contributions from sectors like Big Pharma and private equity affect Rep. Neal’s use of the considerable power he has amassed on Capitol Hill.”
No matter, the paper said, the time for asking those questions will come later — and anyway, being the largest Democratic recipient of corporate cash is a good thing when you really think about it:
The onus is on the congressman to better demonstrate to his constituents that he is beholden to their interests and not his donors. Nevertheless, Rep. Neal’s ample fundraising ability is a testament to his place in the leadership in the Democratic Party writ large.
While he was unsurprised that the paper endorsed the incumbent, Morse said it seemed out of step with voters in Pittsfield, where the paper is based and where eight of 11 city councilors endorsed the mayor’s campaign.
Mohammed Missouri, executive director of community engagement organization Jetpac, said that the local and state coverage of the race is indicative of deeper issues in Massachusetts media, as well as how the press can hold politicians accountable. “Massachusetts is a small state and our news media’s deep ties to the state’s political establishment makes crucial investigative reporting nearly impossible,” said Missouri. “Many people in politics want our democracy to be more transparent but won’t even talk to local reporters anonymously because there is a genuine lack of trust in whether we have an independent press. The bias towards establishment political figures is too obvious to ignore.”
Local media for the most part is doing a disservice to the public, argued Morse. “There have been a couple of folks who have done their due diligence, but by and large I hear a lot of frustration from voters, supporters, and constituents about how local media was quick to cover the story when it was about the allegations and then hesitant to provide updates,” he said.
Among those folks is the Daily Hampshire Gazette. After the publication of this article, some of the paper’s readers contacted The Intercept to request the paper’s coverage be included in the review. The Intercept found four articles on the scandal, two of which addressed the allegations and two of which covered the revelations of MassDems involvement in the smear campaign. The Gazette on Thursday endorsed the mayor. “This Tuesday, we urge residents of the 1st Congressional District to vote not just for a man but for a movement,” the paper editorialized. “Western Mass is ready to send a message to the capital that we’re done with the status quo.”
The broader media’s focus on unsubstantiated and salacious details struck Tanya Neslusan, executive director of Massachusetts-based LGBTQ rights organization MassEquality, as disturbing for what they indicated about internal bias. “I find it extremely disconcerting that certain media outlets were willing to publish the vague accusations that had been released by the UMass college Democrats, without taking a moment to check the facts and verify the claims,” said Neslusan. “The fact that the first impulse was to publish unfounded allegations, that fed right into homophobic tropes, is exactly the reason why MassEquality and other LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations still need to exist.”
To Nancy Stenberg, female caucus representative to the Democratic State Committee for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District, local media’s emphasis on the allegations, and lack of interest in the more complex story of how the accusations were aired, hints at a number of deeper biases.
“The homophobic bias in mainstream reporting against Alex Morse is insidious and pathological,” Stenberg told The Intercept. “Whether this is a result of a desire to manipulate the outcome of an election or even worse — to destroy the future of a decent, honest, hard-working person — this is not what the calling of the media is supposed to be.”


theintercept--2020-08-27--Trump Supporters Rush to Defend One of Their Own Who Killed Protesters in Kenosha

set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday — by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha , Wisconsin on Tuesday , killing two , as a well-meaning kid who decided he “ had to maintain order ” in the Democrat-run state because “ no one else would ” — the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right .
“ The chaos that began with the first George Floyd protests on Memorial Day has reached its inevitable and bloody conclusion , ” Carlson told viewers tuning in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Convention , which had featured , on its first night , two speakers lionized for threatening to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion in St. Louis .
Rittenhouse was reportedly charged with six crimes on Thursday , including first-degree intentional homicide , first-degree reckless homicide , two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety , attempted first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18 .
The incident came after a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake , a Black father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer who fired seven shots into his back , but throughout his report on the fatal shootings Carlson pretended , as he has for months , that there were no non-violent protests over police violence against communities of color , just “ riots.
” In Carlson ’ s telling , the moral of the story was not that Rittenhouse — who was photographed and caught on video from multiple angles shooting three men — had provoked trouble by responding to a militia group ’ s Facebook call for “ patriots willing to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from “ evil thugs , ” but that he was something closer to a victim , prodded to fill a vacuum by the misrule of the city ’ s Democratic mayor , John Antaramian , and the state ’ s Democratic governor , Tony Evers .
“ Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it , ” Carlson told Fox viewers unaware that the city had not , in fact , collapsed into chaos just because they were being shown isolated scenes of violence on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the governor of Wisconsin on down , refused to enforce the law .
They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn , ” Carlson claimed , oblivious to the fact that video recorded by witnesses to Tuesday ’ s events showed Rittenhouse and other heavily armed young vigilantes had spent most of the night standing close to armored police vehicles outside a business they appointed themselves to guard .
At one point in a livestream broadcast that night , a police officer could be heard offering water to the militiamen , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We appreciate you guys , we really do.
” Later that night , after Rittenhouse wandered a short distance away and got into a confrontation with a man he shot in the head , video recorded by a pro-Trump YouTuber , Drew Hernandez , seemed to show Rittenhouse running back down the street in the direction of the police vehicles .
As he retreated from the scene , the video appeared to catch Rittenhouse telling someone on his phone : “ I just killed somebody.
” Rittenhouse fired at both of them , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with a shot to the chest as they struggled for the rifle , and then shooting a third protester , Gaige Grosskreutz , causing a gaping wound in his arm .
Grosskreutz , a member of a social justice group who was wearing a hat with the word “ paramedic ” emblazoned on it , also appeared to be armed with a handgun .
In a remarkable scene at the end of Gutenschwager ’ s video , Rittenhouse can be seen walking with his hands up , apparently trying to surrender to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with earlier in the evening , as a bystander shouts that he shot the protesters , but the officers drive right past him in the direction of the men he shot .
While all of this footage was available to Carlson before he went on air , later in his monologue he professed to have no idea what exactly had happened or whether — because the men who had attempted to disarm the vigilante after he had shot someone in the head could be seen kicking and hitting Rittenhouse — a jury might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-defense .
In this , Carlson was closely following a consensus explanation that had formed during the 24 hours after the shooting by pro-Trump YouTubers , bloggers , and commentators , who decided , after studying slow-motion imagery and still photographs , that the young man who had traveled to Kenosha from his home in neighboring Illinois to defend the city from residents enraged by the shooting of Jacob Blake , was merely acting in self-defense .
That “ assault ” by the skateboarder Anthony Huber ended with his failed effort to wrest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fatally shot in the chest .
Schaffer also thought a 20-second interview he did with Rittenhouse before the shootings provided important “ context ” as to what took place later , since the vigilante did not say anything racist or political in that third of a minute .
Carlson ’ s defense of Rittenhouse also hinged on the false idea that he had taken to the streets to oppose a phantom movement of violent radicals using the protests as cover .
“ The Justice Department could have stopped all of this months ago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kenosha recorded by another of the conservative gonzo video bloggers who descended on the city this week , searching for images of chaos to discredit the protest movement .
“ If federal prosecutors had treated the organizers of BLM and antifa the way they treated Roger Stone , our cities wouldn ’ t look like Kosovo tonight.
” Another conservative journalist who interviewed Rittenhouse earlier in the evening was Richie McGinniss , who directs video for the Daily Caller , the website that was once used to smear Trayvon Martin , the Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George Zimmerman , a neighborhood watch volunteer .
McGinniss appeared on Carlson ’ s show on Wednesday to discuss what happened in Kenosha and his own effort to save the life of the first man shot and killed by Rittenhouse , who was later identified as Joseph Rosenbaum .
What made Carlson ’ s interview with McGinniss odd , however , was that the Daily Caller videographer repeatedly referred to Rittenhouse as “ the alleged shooter , ” even though he was standing just six or seven feet away from Rosenbaum when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filming the confrontation at the time .
It is unclear if McGinniss has video of Rittenhouse shooting Rosenbaum , but he told Carlson that he witnessed the crime at close range .
Even so , Carlson failed to ask him directly if he could say for certain that Rittenhouse did shoot Rosenbaum in the head and cause his death .
Instead , McGinniss offered what sounded like testimony to the gunman ’ s good character .
“ The 17-year-old who I interviewed earlier in the night , he actually mentioned that he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absence of police , ” McGinniss said .
“ It ’ s just hard to believe this is America , ” Carlson said .
“ We can ’ t put up with this.
” When the complaint against Rittenhouse was released late Thursday , it said that McGinniss told a police detective that he did clearly see the teen shoot Rosenbaum at close range as the victim reached for the rifle .
Footage recorded earlier in the evening showed that Rosenbaum was incensed by the presence of the armed militia members in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s report which “ indicated that Rosenbaum had a gunshot wound to the right groin which fractured his pelvis , a gunshot wound to the back which perforated his right lung and liver , a gunshot wound to the left hand , a superficial gunshot wound to his lateral left thigh , and a graze gunshot wound to the right side of his forehead.
” As the momentum to excuse Rittenhouse ’ s crimes as justified spread online Thursday , amplified by far-right figures around the globe , Jamelle Bouie called it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the year .
”

When Tucker Carlson set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday — by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing two, as a well-meaning kid who decided he “had to maintain order” in the Democrat-run state because “no one else would” — the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right.
“The chaos that began with the first George Floyd protests on Memorial Day has reached its inevitable and bloody conclusion,” Carlson told viewers tuning in for his buildup to the Republican National Convention, which had featured, on its first night, two speakers lionized for threatening to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion in St. Louis.
When Trump glorifies one, we inevitably get the other. If you don’t see how uplifting the McCloskeys emboldens people like Kyle Rittenhouse then you’re not paying attention. pic.twitter.com/lwpPRPYjAo — Sen. Mike Gianaris (@SenGianaris) August 26, 2020
“Last night, three people were shot on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two of them have died. Police say they’ve charged a 17-year-old with murder,” Carlson reported, without revealing that the suspect, Kyle Rittenhouse, was not the anti-fascist radical his viewers might have been led to expect, but a conservative vigilante who had posted video from the front row of a Trump rally in January, and written “BLUE LIVES MATTER” and “Trump 2020” on his TikTok bio, as Buzzfeed first reported.
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1298795763565289472
Rittenhouse was reportedly charged with six crimes on Thursday, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.
The incident came after a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black father who was critically wounded by a police officer who fired seven shots into his back, but throughout his report on the fatal shootings Carlson pretended, as he has for months, that there were no non-violent protests over police violence against communities of color, just “riots.”
In Carlson’s telling, the moral of the story was not that Rittenhouse — who was photographed and caught on video from multiple angles shooting three men — had provoked trouble by responding to a militia group’s Facebook call for “patriots willing to take up arms and defend” the city from “evil thugs,” but that he was something closer to a victim, prodded to fill a vacuum by the misrule of the city’s Democratic mayor, John Antaramian, and the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers.
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
“Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it,” Carlson told Fox viewers unaware that the city had not, in fact, collapsed into chaos just because they were being shown isolated scenes of violence on a loop.
“People in charge, from the governor of Wisconsin on down, refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn,” Carlson claimed, oblivious to the fact that video recorded by witnesses to Tuesday’s events showed Rittenhouse and other heavily armed young vigilantes had spent most of the night standing close to armored police vehicles outside a business they appointed themselves to guard.
Cell phone footage shows Kenosha police telling armed insurrectionists, “We appreciate you guys. We really do,” and giving them bottles of water. Shortly after this video was taken, one of these men shot and killed two protesters and wounded another. pic.twitter.com/ORN31z9IMw — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 26, 2020
At one point in a livestream broadcast that night, a police officer could be heard offering water to the militiamen, including Rittenhouse, and telling them: “We appreciate you guys, we really do.”
Later that night, after Rittenhouse wandered a short distance away and got into a confrontation with a man he shot in the head, video recorded by a pro-Trump YouTuber, Drew Hernandez, seemed to show Rittenhouse running back down the street in the direction of the police vehicles. As he retreated from the scene, the video appeared to catch Rittenhouse telling someone on his phone: “I just killed somebody.”
https://twitter.com/livesmattershow/status/1298484404918972417
According to the police complaint against Rittenhouse, released on Thursday evening, his friend Dominic Black told a detective that he received a call from his friend Kyle at 11:46 pm on Tuesday, in which the gunman stated that he shot someone.
A subsequent analysis of the video by the New York Times visual investigations unit suggested that, moments before Rittenhouse opened fire, a single gunshot was fired into the air for unknown reasons by someone standing near the parking lot where the confrontation took place.
Shelby Talcott, a video journalist for the Daily Caller, a conservative site founded by Carlson, captured footage of Rittenhouse fleeing the scene of the first shooting, as protesters shouted that he had shot someone.
https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1298487753718534144
Video shot by Brendan Gutenschwager — a video blogger who has described Trump rallies as “exhilarating” — appeared to show Rittenhouse pursued by several protesters who suspected him of carrying out the first shooting. After he tripped and fell, just a block away from the police, two of those men attempted to disarm him, one by kicking him and another by hitting him with a skateboard.
Rittenhouse fired at both of them, apparently killing the skateboarder, Anthony Huber, with a shot to the chest as they struggled for the rifle, and then shooting a third protester, Gaige Grosskreutz, causing a gaping wound in his arm. Grosskreutz, a member of a social justice group who was wearing a hat with the word “paramedic” emblazoned on it, also appeared to be armed with a handgun.
In a remarkable scene at the end of Gutenschwager’s video, Rittenhouse can be seen walking with his hands up, apparently trying to surrender to the police officers he had been chatting with earlier in the evening, as a bystander shouts that he shot the protesters, but the officers drive right past him in the direction of the men he shot.
While all of this footage was available to Carlson before he went on air, later in his monologue he professed to have no idea what exactly had happened or whether — because the men who had attempted to disarm the vigilante after he had shot someone in the head could be seen kicking and hitting Rittenhouse — a jury might ultimately decide that he had acted in self-defense.
In this, Carlson was closely following a consensus explanation that had formed during the 24 hours after the shooting by pro-Trump YouTubers, bloggers, and commentators, who decided, after studying slow-motion imagery and still photographs, that the young man who had traveled to Kenosha from his home in neighboring Illinois to defend the city from residents enraged by the shooting of Jacob Blake, was merely acting in self-defense.
This as close and slow as you’re gonna find I think. Skateboard guy attacks and gets shot. Guy approaching with hand gun out gets shot. Self defense. pic.twitter.com/jDi987NAsF — Jack Murphy ?? (@jackmurphylive) August 26, 2020
Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, suggested on Twitter that the slow-motion video convinced him that the killings were “100% justified self defense.” Hours before Carlson went to air, Gosar also blamed the violence on Kenosha’s local government. “Armed citizens defending themselves will fill the vacuum,” he wrote.
100% justified self defense. Do not try to take a weapon away from a man or bear the consequences. The criminals here: Kenosha local government that allows the riots, burning and looting night after night. Armed citizens defending themselves will fill the vacuum. https://t.co/7L5jvPBcHb — Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) August 26, 2020
One of Rittenhouse’s defenders was Elijah Schaffer, a freelance producer for Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV and a pro-Trump political activist who released a misleading account of a fight involving Black Lives Matter protesters in Dallas in May. Writing on Twitter on Wednesday, Schaffer described the Turkish journalist Tayfun Coskun’s photograph of the protesters attempting to disarm the gunman as Rittenhouse “being attacked by #BLM rioters.”
“One of the attackers,” in Schaffer’s words, was “about to assault him with a skateboard.”
CRUCIAL: this is an image taken right as the last 2 shootings occurred in #Kenosha You can see the 17 year old shooter being attacked by #BLM rioters on the street One of the attackers about to assault him with a skateboard is now deceased All evidence must be examined here pic.twitter.com/qij2kLzxym — E (@ElijahSchaffer) August 27, 2020
That “assault” by the skateboarder Anthony Huber ended with his failed effort to wrest the gun away from Rittenhouse and being fatally shot in the chest.
Schaffer also thought a 20-second interview he did with Rittenhouse before the shootings provided important “context” as to what took place later, since the vigilante did not say anything racist or political in that third of a minute.
CONTEXT: I spoke with the alleged shooter earlier in the night who stated he was there to protect property He did not make racist comments, condemn #BLM, or mention political motivations for his actions He said that he was there to protect property & was carrying a firearm pic.twitter.com/ViYUB65tiy — E (@ElijahSchaffer) August 26, 2020
As Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times opinion columnist, noted on Twitter, an obvious flaw in the conservative argument that Rittenhouse was just defending himself from the second and third men he shot is that they were only “attacking” him because he had just shot someone else in the head.
I have been seeing this everywhere on here. It is an explicit argument that if someone is trying to stop you after you killed someone, you can continue shooting and killing in “self-defense.” https://t.co/h5Dl6cu7Qn — b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) August 27, 2020
Carlson’s defense of Rittenhouse also hinged on the false idea that he had taken to the streets to oppose a phantom movement of violent radicals using the protests as cover. “The Justice Department could have stopped all of this months ago,” Carlson ranted over footage of Kenosha recorded by another of the conservative gonzo video bloggers who descended on the city this week, searching for images of chaos to discredit the protest movement. “If federal prosecutors had treated the organizers of BLM and antifa the way they treated Roger Stone, our cities wouldn’t look like Kosovo tonight.”
Another journalist for a far-right site who interviewed Rittenhouse earlier in the evening was Richie McGinniss, who directs video for the Daily Caller, the website that was once used to smear Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.
I interviewed the alleged shooter before the violence started. Full video coming soon: pic.twitter.com/G3dVOJozN7 — Richie?McG? (@RichieMcGinniss) August 26, 2020
McGinniss appeared on Carlson’s show on Wednesday to discuss what happened in Kenosha and his own effort to save the life of the first man shot and killed by Rittenhouse, who was later identified as Joseph Rosenbaum.
What made Carlson’s interview with McGinniss odd, however, was that the Daily Caller videographer repeatedly referred to Rittenhouse as “the alleged shooter,” even though he was standing just six or seven feet away from Rosenbaum when he was shot and seemed to have been filming the confrontation at the time.
WATCH: The Daily Caller's @RichieMcGinniss went on Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk about reporting from on the ground at the riots in Kenosha last night and recount his attempt to save the life of one of the victims with his t-shirt. pic.twitter.com/dhk80H8iWD — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 27, 2020
It is unclear if McGinniss has video of Rittenhouse shooting Rosenbaum, but he told Carlson that he witnessed the crime at close range. Even so, Carlson failed to ask him directly if he could say for certain that Rittenhouse did shoot Rosenbaum in the head and cause his death. Instead, McGinniss offered what sounded like testimony to the gunman’s good character. “The 17-year-old who I interviewed earlier in the night, he actually mentioned that he was there to maintain peace, in the absence of police,” McGinniss said.
“It’s just hard to believe this is America,” Carlson said. “We can’t put up with this.”
When the complaint against Rittenhouse was released late Thursday, it said that McGinniss told a police detective that he did clearly see the teen shoot Rosenbaum at close range as the victim reached for the rifle. Footage recorded earlier in the evening showed that Rosenbaum was incensed by the presence of the armed militia members in the neighborhood.
The complaint cited a coroner’s report which “indicated that Rosenbaum had a gunshot wound to the right groin which fractured his pelvis, a gunshot wound to the back which perforated his right lung and liver, a gunshot wound to the left hand, a superficial gunshot wound to his lateral left thigh, and a graze gunshot wound to the right side of his forehead.”
As the momentum to excuse Rittenhouse’s crimes as justified spread online Thursday, amplified by far-right figures around the globe, Jamelle Bouie called it “the single most ominous development of the year.”
not sure anything has quite gotten to me the way the drive to make rittenhouse a right-wing hero of self-defense has. it is, to me, the single most ominous development of the year. — b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) August 27, 2020
The journalist Matt Prigge noted that the increasingly obscene lionization of Rittenhouse echoed the wave of praise in 1970 for the National Guardsmen who killed four anti-war protesters at Kent State, documented by the historian Rick Perlstein in his book, “Nixonland.”
Got to the section of Nixonland about Kent State the day after the right wing cheered on the murderer of two protesters pic.twitter.com/RT6uUv9Rj4 — Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) August 27, 2020
At a news conference on Friday, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said that he did not want armed volunteers like Kyle Rittenhouse on the streets during protests.
“This group of people that are carrying weapons here, if they’re in their house — and again, I support the Second Amendment — if they’re in there protecting their property, I have no issue with that,” the sheriff said. “The people that have been here carrying guns, they haven’t been arrested because it’s a right that they have. Have we asked for them to come? Are we asking for them to come in and support things? I’m not.”
“You could clearly see the situation escalated Tuesday night because a 17-year-old boy carrying what appears to be an assault rifle, who has no idea how to handle a situation like this,” Beth added. “I don’t care if he had the right intentions or not, two people are currently dead, and one almost had his arm blown off.”
Last Updated: Friday, Aug. 28, 10:07 p.m. PDT
This article was updated to add new information on Thursday and Friday, including the formal police complaint against Kyle Rittenhouse, and to note the participation of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple facing weapons charges for brandishing guns at protesters, in the Republican National Convention the night before Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha to join a volunteer militia patrolling the streets.