The Intercept website landed itself in hot water earlier this week after running a hit-piece that effectively put dangerous targets on the backs of conservative field reporters who have covered the Antifa/Black Lives Matter-led riots up close and personal over the last year.
“Journalist” Robert Mackey, a senior reporter for the Intercept whose resume includes prior reporting for the New York Times (surprise), and his colleague Travis Mannon proudly promoted the link numerous times on their respective Twitter feeds and retweeted the scant praise they received from supporters like has-been comedian Tom Arnold.
But it was Mackey’s tweets that got ratioed big time as other media figures on both sides of the aisle and their Twitter followers blasted The Intercept for further endangering the lives of these on-the-ground reporters over the “crime” of often reporting on the side of these “peaceful protests” that the mainstream media doesn’t want you to see.
Here’s a short clip from the video below. For those who want to watch the full 25-minute version, I encourage you to click here rather than giving The Intercept’s website any extra clicks:
In the piece, field/riot reporters for Daily Caller, Townhall.com, and The Blaze as well as some independent reporters were criticized for having the audacity to show the bad side of the Antifa/BLM protests. Some of them were accused of deceptive editing, which is chutzpah on steroids coming from a report that in and of itself was deceptive, as we’ll soon dive into.
Popular progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald, who co-founded the Intercept in 2014 but who resigned in October 2020 alleging editorial censorship over stories critical of then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, ripped Mackey, Mannon, and others at The Intercept a new one for the direction they were taking the website:
Post Millennial editor-at-large Andy Ngo, who has been assaulted by Antifa rioters and who has repeatedly been threatened with further retaliation by the violent group, also criticized The Intercept:
Andrew Sullivan, another progressive journalist who left a left-wing publication over disagreements over the editorial direction, also called The Intercept’s piece an attack on journalism:
Townhall and Daily Caller both ran pieces standing by the work of their reporters.
Some of the reporters have done interviews with Fox News as well in the aftermath of The Intercept’s smear attempt:
As to what’s deceptive about The Intercept’s report, there’s too much to document in this post, but for starters, Daily Caller chief video director Richie McGinniss wrote a lengthy Twitter thread dissecting and debunking what they alleged about him, including the suggestion that he committed a felony by allegedly deleting footage central to the Kyle Rittenhouse case:
Rosas also defended his own reporting as well and noted that The Intercept left out the fact that he, too, hasn’t just reported “one side,” further imploding the narrative of deliberate deception on the part of the conservative reporters covering the protests:
I honestly think a case can be made that these “Riot Squad” reporters on the right have presented a far more balanced picture of what’s happening at these riots than the mainstream media has, based on what I’ve seen of the videos they’ve taken and the reports filed (full disclosure: I also write for Townhall sister site RedState). They’re certainly far more balanced than most of what you’ll see at The Intercept – especially from Mackey, who blocked Prof. Jacobson several years ago after he questioned Mackey’s Gaza war reporting.
Unfortunately, the mission of The Intercept’s report has already been accomplished:
Absolutely disgusting. And most definitely not “journalism” in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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