Antifa has taken control of what you are seeing coming out of Portland and they’re not being very gentle about it.
Nancy Rommelmann at Reason gives us a glimpse into a sophisticated media operation by antifa that looks to bend the narrative in the direction they want it by intimidation and outright thuggery.
“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO FILM!” is a cry you hear incessantly at protests in Portland, Oregon, always shouted at close range to your face by after-dark demonstrators. You can assert that, yes, you can film; you can point out that they themselves are filming incessantly; you can push their hands away from covering your phone; you can have your phone record them stealing your phone—all of these things have happened to me—and none will have any impact on their contention that “YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO FILM” and its occasional variation, “PHOTOGRAPHY EQUALS DEATH!”
Rommelmann, who has been covering the protests since July, believes the narrative being foisted on the American people is “90 percent bulls**t.”
I wondered, the first time I attended the protests at the federal building back in July, who all these young people with PRESS emblazoned on their jackets or helmets were. I asked one such guy who he worked for.
“Independent Press Corps,” he told me. As it turned out, dozens of other young PRESS people happened to work for the same outfit, which I at first assumed was a fancy way of saying “I want to report stuff and stream it on my Instagram.”
This turned out to be naive. The IPC is an organized group in league with the activists, and it is usually their footage you see streamed online and recycled on the news: mostly innocent protestors being harassed and beaten by police.
Where did this operation come from? Who’s funding it? It may be unique in American history—an organization of media manipulators along with a thug army to intimidate everyone who wants to report any alternative point of view.
Welcome to antifa’s Brave New World.
Reporters seen as not sufficiently sympathetic to the cause—which is defined by the Ten Demands for Justice, and includes most notably the abolition of the police—will be followed, be harassed, have their notes photographed and their phones blocked or stolen. (All these things have happened to me in the last month. A photographer friend has been repeatedly doxxed and placed on a list of “enemies.”)
Even the commies aren’t this efficient.
“Approved journalists” include a freelance writer whose reports have appeared in the New York Times and another freelancer who tweeted approval of the burning of the police association building.
The burning of the Portland Police Association building was a well coordinated and executed action, with minimal casualties by protesters. The PPA is trending nationwide. This might be the single biggest win of any action in the Portland Uprising so far.
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) July 19, 2020
Evans called the arson a “win” because police had “tear-gassed and beaten” some protesters — after weeks of provocations that included more arson targeting the cops.
Another approved “journalist” was the Washington Post’s Kate Shepherd. It’s nice to know, when you’re reading the Post, that you’re getting antifa propaganda.
Modern politics is all about controlling the narrative. You can be helped or hurt by whether the national media picks up on it or not. As the media becomes increasingly ideological in their coverage of what’s happening, manipulating the press becomes easier.
In this case, the national media wants to be manipulated. They are being led around by the nose by antifa because the images and reporting that antifa wants you to see generate sympathy for rioters and arsonists. And it makes the president’s emphasis on law and order appear to be an unjustified crackdown on “peaceful protesters.”
Antifa has successfully recruited a good part of the national media in their war against order and society. Perhaps the unwitting fools will wake up and realize someone is pulling their strings. Or their somnolence will be the end of our republic.
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