Motto of the Right-wing Media: Trust But Don't Verify

Right-wing media is elevating hoax after hoax and misleading report after misleading report in its ongoing effort to make antifa the big deal Donald Trump wants it to be. Antifa may be a literal footnote to an intelligence bulletin on protest-related violence, but if you follow the right-wing media, you’re hearing constantly what a giant scary threat it is.

Take Lara Logan (who has fallen a long way since her false reporting on Benghazi)-- who has now gone off the deep end as a Fox News personality. She’s promoted a series of hoaxes in order to bolster right-wing claims of Antifa involvement in the BLM protests.

“For those of you still in denial about who is directing & controlling the protests - take a close look at this,” she tweeted on May 31. “This” was an item from 2015 about the Baltimore protests against the police killing of Freddie Gray, and it was a hoax back then, too. 

The next day, Logan tweeted a threat by the @ANTIFA_US Twitter account. The account turned out to be fake, and linked to Identity Europa, a white nationalist organization.  Logan then appeared on Hannity to claim that Antifa was leaving "pallets of bricks" at protest sites in an attempt to stoke violence and destruction. Fact-checkers found that claims of bricks being left at protest sites were baseless. No one else reported seeing Antifa trucks leaving pallets of bricks.

Logan also attempted to further claims that Antifa had a "traditional command structure" by referencing a dubious link between Antifa and juggalos.  The account was clearly a joke account, and contained the following post: “for those confused as to the antifa clown hierarchy, there isn't one juggalos are regulars jokers are auxiliaries outside the traditional command structure.”  Huh?

Logan’s not the only one, though. When a group of peaceful protesters accepted Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s invitation into City Hall this week, right-wing media tweeted out video with the claim: “Antifa and [Black Lives Matter] have broken into Seattle city hall.”  Sawant (who is an elected official) actually used a key to get in-- but that didn't stop Fox News’ Tomi Lahren, the Daily Caller, and Republican congressional staffers from re-tweeting the bogus claim.

Intelligence agencies have continued to be clear that the major threat comes from racist extremists, but Donald Trump and the right-wing media have people in rural towns across the country scared that antifa is coming to town.  It’s just one more attempt to distract, divide and smear their opponents ahead of of the fall elections.