In the wake of the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home, liberal journalists are turning to “extremism experts,” “violence researchers,” and “scholars” to support their narrative that hot right-wing talk about the raid is going to lead to violence. They’ve rushed to connect it to the shooter outside the FBI office in Cincinnati. But who are these experts? Democrats, progressives, and Obama advisers, presented as nonpartisans.
The New York Times used professor Robert Pape to “compare conditions in the United States to those of the dry forest with lots of combustible material on the ground. All it takes is a spark, like the search of Mar-a-Lago to ignite the tinder.” The Times ended the story with Pape insisting “it’s wildfire season” for violent right-wing talk. In 2008, Pape advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Yahoo! News turned to Jared Holt, who spent the Trump years as an investigative reporter for the leftists at “People for the American Way.” He also spent two years with David Brock’s Fox-hating media analysis group.
As they maligned the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag as a “far-right” symbol, NPR turned to Rachel Carroll Rivas of the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center. (NPR praised the book In Defense of Looting, and touted a book saying leftist race riots should be described glowingly as “rebellions.”)
All these “extremism experts” were presented without being identified as ideologically on the Left.
We also discuss how CNN’s Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy had a bizarre conversation suggesting — in defiance of reality — that the “mainstream media” hasn’t been reporting the hottest talk from pro-Trump activists on social media and podcasts like Steve Bannon’s. How could they so shamelessly be wrong?
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