Thread on the media’s longtime failure to cover white supremacist terrorism with the urgency it should have. From 2018-2019, I was trying to write a book about this very topic, so after the Christchurch massacre, I must have pitched 10-15 publications something along these lines:

Most passed. In the aftermath of an attack like that, there is always a brief glut of coverage. It seemed the editors I pitched wanted their own writers—who rarely specialized in terrorism—to join the fray with some quick hits. They were not interested in a more in-depth feature.

Finally @washingtonpost took the pitch, but asked for it in argument format instead of a feature. Here’s what I wrote: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/03/22/feature/how-white-supremacy-and-islamist-terrorism-strengthen-each-other-online/

It wasn't my original idea. I wanted something broader and more in-depth, but I was grateful to place it. I interviewed Joel Finkelstein of @ncri_io for the WaPo piece and he had a quote, especially chilling in hindsight, that never made it into the story: https://twitter.com/SulomeAnderson/status/1106940763701538816?s=20

Soon after the publication of that piece, I finished my book proposal, and my agent pitched it around. This was part of the overview. There was some interest, but we were well into Trumpmania by that point, and the environment was terrible for selling this kind of book.

I kept getting the feedback from publishers that it was “too depressing,” that people wanted to read books that cheered them up and entertained them. This was definitely not that kind of book. After many attempts, I dropped the project, thoroughly dejected.

I knew this was a danger that would keep emerging. I wanted to warn people. I had never done any TV, but I was asked to partner with a small production company, so I thought I'd pitch it as a docu-series. Here’s part of that proposal. No one seemed interested. I set that aside.

Contrast this lack of interest in what was clearly becoming a huge threat, with the absolute frenzy of material and coverage about Islamist terrorism during peak ISIS years. This was part of the reason I decided to take a break from journalism and focus on my family for a while.

I felt like I had worked so hard on these projects, I wanted to warn people, but no one was listening.

As I saw what happened at the Capitol unfold and watched the coverage of "protesters," I immediately noticed: 1) most of them were obvious white supremacists and 2) some had clearly received military training and were executing what I immediately recognized as an operation.

I knew this day would eventually come. I tweeted about it. I think I was probably one of the first reporters to insist on calling it terrorism. But by the time people caught on, it was too late. https://twitter.com/SulomeAnderson/status/1346911495691505666?s=20

My point in tweeting all this is that the media had many opportunities to cover this the way it should have been, for several years now. I'm sure I'm not the only journalist to unsuccessfully pitch this subject matter. We need to do better to warn the public of such threats. End.

PS: someone pointed out that maybe they wouldn't pub me because a smear piece by some rando conspiracy trolls was somehow hitting number 1 on my Google search results at the time. To that, I'll just ask if men with my qualifications would be passed over for such an absurd reason.