FAIR surveyed the discussion of Nazi protesters in the month since the Charlottesville demonstration in America’s six top broadsheet newspapers (“Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News and Washington Post”) and found “virtually equal amounts of condemnation of fascists and anti-fascist protesters.”
The press devoted many of those column-inches to condemning the “alt-left,” an imaginary bogeyman that Donald Trump uses to make Nazis sound reasonable, and that the Democratic establishment uses to marginalize the progressive wing of the party.
Between August 12 and September 12, these papers ran 28 op-eds or editorials condemning the anti-fascist movement known as antifa, or calling on politicians to do so, and 27 condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists, or calling on politicians—namely Donald Trump—to do so.
For the purposes of this survey, commentary that drew a comparison between antifa and neo-Nazis, but devoted the bulk of its argument to condemning antifa, was categorized as anti-antifa. There were no op-eds or editorials framed as condemnations of “both sides” that spent as much or more time condemning or criticizing neo-Nazis. The “both sides” frame—which was employed by Donald Trump in the wake of the attack, and endorsed by white supremacist David Duke—was almost always used a vehicle to highlight and denounce antifa, with a “to be sure” line about neo-Nazis thrown in for good measure. A breakdown of the op-eds and editorials can be found here.
In Month After Charlottesville, Papers Spent as Much Time Condemning Anti-Nazis as Nazis
[Adam Johnson/FAIR]
(via JWZ)