Media silence sends message on right-wing violence

[struggle4progress]

AUGUST 11, 2020
HENRY BRANNAN

Hank Gilbert, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Louie Gohmert in Texas’ 1st congressional district, held a rally in Tyler, Texas, on July 26 against federal law enforcement agencies’ recent intervention in Portland, Oregon. But armed participants of a “Back the Blue” counter-protest crashed the event, beating and robbing attendees in the park. The attack injured a number of rally attendees, including Gilbert’s campaign manager Ryan Miller, resulting in at least two police reports being filed so far.

Videos (KETK, 7/26/20; Tyler Morning Telegraph, 7/26/20; YouTube, 7/29/20) from the scene show the majority of counter-protesters wearing Trump attire, with many also carrying American, Confederate and “Thin Blue Line” flags. In images posted to Facebook by Gilbert, one counter-protestor’s “white pride” tattoo is clearly visible. Many can be seen toting military-style rifles. Counter-protestors consistently expressed pro-Gohmert sentiments, at times drowning out Gilbert’s attempts to speak with chants of “Louie.”

But you wouldn’t know any of this from following major media outlets. Since the attack, we could find no major national newspaper or TV outlet coverage of it at all.

Beyond a handful of local stories, the only media attention we found came from two liberal-leaning news sites (Salon, 7/27/20; Talking Points Memo, 7/27/20) and nine sentences at the end of an Associated Press article (7/27/20) on a similar attack two-and-a-half hours west in Weatherford, Texas ...

https://fair.org/home/on-right-wing-violence-in-texas-medias-silence-sends-message/

[struggle4progress]

1. White supremacists arrested in Weatherford

BY ERIC GRIFFEY TEXAS
PUBLISHED 5:27 AM CT AUG. 05, 2020

... Weatherford has become a powder-keg of racial tension in the wake of a protest two weeks ago. The Parker County Progressives organized a peaceful demonstration against a Confederate statue that sits on the Parker County courthouse lawn.

When out-of-town grassroots groups joined the protest, local right-wing chats and social media accounts circulated rumors that national operatives from ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter were coming to Weatherford to incite violence and topple the 100-year-old monument. The far-right groups invited other Texas militias to go to Parker County and defend the statue. Many answered the call.

On the day of the event, protesters were greeted by hundreds of counter-protesters and militiamen, many of whom were armed, and some were flying Confederate and Nazi flags. A sniper’s nest was set up in the town square, and other men pointed assault rifles at the Progressive’s group. The police chief and sheriff guaranteed the protesters’ safety before the event, but the law enforcement's presence during the demonstration was minimal. At one point, sheriff’s deputies locked themselves inside the courthouse. The few officers on site watched as protesters were harassed, threatened, punched, spat on, and more.

The protest’s main organizer, Tony Crawford, said Weatherford’s current climate of intolerance has made it rife for hate groups to come and create chaos ... “If ANTIFA would have come to town, that would have been blamed on me,” he said. “If anything happens to that statue, I get blamed because the Progressives in Parker County group started this." When white supremacists come to town to stir up trouble, locals believe, "They’re doing it in defense of the country” ...

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/news/2020/08/04/white-supremacists-arrested-in-weatherford