Members of the left-wing political activist group, Antifa (ostensibly named for “Anti-Fascism”), tonight assaulted a local reporter, the latest in long series of attacks the group’s waged against members of the media.
In Portland, Oreg., journalist Andy Ngo was hospitalized after coming under attack while reporting from an Antifa protest. Ngo had discovered the day prior the group planned to attack him and mentioned his fear covering the event.
Normally a group like Antifa that’s avowedly opposed to media transparency would come under criticism from the media itself, yet somehow reporters at CNN, MSNBC, and elsewhere have become Antifa boosters.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo calls Antifa “a good cause.”
“I have been with those people, you can talk about them, I have watched them in the streets protesting in different situations,” Cuomo said. “There’s certainly aspects of them that are true to a cause. That’s a good cause. They want social justice and whatever they want in that context.”
Cuomo’s CNN colleague, Don Lemon, said the group should be thought of as their name suggests — “anti-fascist” and therefore on the right side of these street clashes. On the specific question of Antifa’s embrace of violence, Lemon said: “ ‘No organization is perfect.”
CNN’s Sara Sidner defended Antifa violence against reporters and police officers at the Charlottesville protest, insisting that the actions only came about as a result of “neo-Nazis” that spurred the protest. “They say nonviolence hasn’t worked,” Sidner said understandingly of Antifa. “And that, ‘We are going to try to stop this.’”
CNN contributor Michael Eric Dyson likened Antifa to a cancer treatment that’s trying to preserve “the fabric of America.”
“The radiation is tough treatment,” Dyson said, referring to Antifa violence. “But it is meant to remove the cancer.”
During an episode of Meet the Press, a Dartmouth professor who’s written a book on Antifa said “fascism cannot be defeated through speech,” and condoned the group’s use of aggressor violence as a form of self-defense.
And that’s just a sampling. For more, check out the montage above.