The Associated Press has just put out a report claiming that most people arrested at riots and demonstrations are not leftist radicals. This caused the venerable news organization to be relentlessly mocked online for trying to sanitize Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters as regular peaceful protesters.
“[Rioters] have been portrayed by the president as violent left-wing radicals and used to scare suburban voters,” said the AP in their new report. “But an AP review found most of those arrested in U.S. protests look like regular citizens caught up in the moment.”
“Many are young suburban adults from the very neighborhoods Trump vows to protect from the violence in his reelection push to win support from the suburbs.”
The very sanitized description of Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters has led to the AP being mocked both on social media and on the web pages of alternative media outlets.
Nick Arama, a writer for conservative alternative news outlet Red State, pointed out how the AP was attempting to shift the blame of the violence away from the rioters and onto President Donald Trump, who the AP argues is attempting to falsely portray the demonstrators as “violent urban left-wing radicals.”
“Apparently, it's Trump's fault that you think they're violent,” wrote Arama. “Don't believe the evidence of your own eyes, says the AP. Or all the videos showing their violence, they're not really trying to burn down the courthouse or attack the police.”
Arama further talked about the racism inherent in the AP's assertion that most of the rioters were “regular” and “suburban” people.
“Do they think only White kids live in the suburbs or only Black kids live in urban areas? And ‘regular citizens?’ Are urban kids not ‘regular citizens?’ What the heck is this nonsense? … Talk about spinning to excuse these characters.” (Related: The Associated Press is now insanely bigoted as news org begins to capitalize “black” but not “white” in racial descriptions.)
AP accused of attempting to cover for Antifa and BLM violence
Many people voiced similar concerns with the article online. Richard Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, tweeted that the AP was attempting to provide “aid and comfort” to the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters by portraying them as nonviolent protesters. He further added that this is why people should vote for Trump because if they do not, then the “left-wing media” will “ruin our way of life.”
https://twitter.com/TroyRiser/status/1318588028097601536
Political commentator Lisa Boothe said that the AP was “running interference for extremist groups.” Author and comedian Tim Young said that the AP has turned into a public relations firm for Antifa.
Other regular users on Twitter have come out to react negatively to the article. One person said that the AP is arguing that, because most of the people arrested were White and affluent, they cannot be dangerous and cannot be part of a domestic terrorist organization.
Another user pointed out how hypocritical it was of the AP to try and claim that many of the rioters are regular people when the picture accompanying the article is of a burned and flipped over car. A third poster tried to point out how bizarre it was for the AP to say the rioters were just “caught up in the moment” by sharing several images of organized Antifa rioters dressed up in their all-black uniforms and forming makeshift shield walls.
This is not the first time that the AP has received flack for attempting to sanitize the language used to describe the civil unrest and the criminals behind it. They have previously advised reporters against using the term “riot” because it “suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium.” They argue that this is not what is occurring across the country.
Learn more about what the riots are actually like by reading the latest articles at Rioting.news.
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