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A well meaning friend texted me last night to ask if the attack on the Capitol had made it scary to be a reporter.
I mean this from the bottom of my heart: no.
This is old, old news to all of us and anyone paying attention.
A rant: https://time.com/5846497/journalists-police-george-floyd-protests/
I mean this from the bottom of my heart: no.
This is old, old news to all of us and anyone paying attention.
A rant: https://time.com/5846497/journalists-police-george-floyd-protests/
So many of y’all were posting “Je Suis Charlie” in 2015 when journalists in France were slain, because attacks on the press in the Western world were so disruptive then. But then you have been quiet or, I guess, blissfully unaware of the last five years in the U.S.?
In this case, I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but here’s a not at all exhaustive reading list for anyone ready to tune in:
(If this seems familiar, it is. I said about the same thing after the Capital Gazette shooting. Will likely have to again in a couple years)
(If this seems familiar, it is. I said about the same thing after the Capital Gazette shooting. Will likely have to again in a couple years)
In 2020 you had cops arresting and harassing reporters covering protests en masse. Rubber bullets, arrests, tear gas, you name it. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/11/journalist-blinded-during-protest-sues-minneapolis-police-state-patrol/amp/
Then you’ve got President Trump celebrating it. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/trump-glorifying-violence-against-news-reporters-is-dangerous-advocates-say-2020-9%3Famp
Though 2020 was significantly worse, you had all kinds of hostility in 2019 including these two both in Georgia just a week apart:
The wife of a county commissioner just up the road dumping a drink on a reporter and her equipment https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2019/dec/13/wife-chattooga-county-commissioner-poured-drink-reporters-head/510577/
The wife of a county commissioner just up the road dumping a drink on a reporter and her equipment https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2019/dec/13/wife-chattooga-county-commissioner-poured-drink-reporters-head/510577/
And a Savannah reporter getting groped on live television about a week earlier: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1097771
A lawmaker stole and threw a reporter’s phone in the Kentucky State House: https://greensboro.com/news/state/state-senator-from-forsyth-county-apologizes-after-run-in-with/article_a9d57455-350f-532f-a1c7-2faf46ebc9cb.html
Trump threatens reporter with prison time during interview https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-threatens-reporter-with-prison-time-during-interview/2019/06/21/b622b84c-9420-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html%3FoutputType%3Damp
Colorado reporter and photojournalist assaulted, equipment attacked by a man in a Trump shirt: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-reporter-and-chief-photojournalist-assaulted-equipment-attacked/
Orlando reported assaulted at Trump rally: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-trump-orlando-aftermath-20190619-aearswhyxfa6tcehgi3uphicbm-story.html
More reporters assaulted at another Trump rally the same year: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-other-reporters-attacked-trump-rally/
2018 brings pipe bombs at CNN and other newsrooms: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnns-new-york-headquarters-evacuated-after-pipe-bomb-found-mailroom/
The slaying of five people in a Maryland newsroom: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.capitalgazette.com/maryland/annapolis/bs-md-gazette-shooting-20180628-story.html%3FoutputType%3Damp
A then Trump super fan and commenter Milo Yiannopolous rooting for vigilantes to gun journalists down when asked for comment for a story: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/743561002
AP reporter punched, called fake news while covering a hurricane: https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ap-video-journalist-punched-face-and-called-fake-news/
Then in 2017 we have the time Walmart carried t-shirts that literally read “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.” https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/30/567503989/walmart-pulls-t-shirts-that-hint-at-lynching-journalists
This cool cat who, as a Congressman in Montana body slammed a reporter in 2017, was praised and endorsed by Trump in 2018. Not just in spite of the body slam, but citing it.
Now he’s the governor. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1690729002
Now he’s the governor. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1690729002
A WaPo photographer was assaulted by apparently much more proactive Capitol police during Trump’s inauguration:
https://twitter.com/AlexanderEmmons/status/822473187749404672/video/1
https://twitter.com/AlexanderEmmons/status/822473187749404672/video/1
And those are just the incidents I remember off the top of my head. Doesn’t account for all of us who were tear gassed or shoved or more mildly messed with in this time (most reporters I know), or who are regularly threatened and berated and often fearful for doing our jobs.
You want to make sure the reporters you know are doing ok? Subscribe to their papers, denounce broad or even vaguely threatening comments toward them and make news, the first amendment and just living in reality, more sacred than political allegiance.
Then we’ll be ok.
Then we’ll be ok.
And I’m probably just screaming into the void, but I’m unbelievably sick of people treating whatever viral attack on the press that inevitably crops up every few months as a tipping point or a shock and then ignoring the deluge of rhetoric that cultivates this stuff in between.
