A mob of white nationalists got violent during an encounter with counter protesters Friday night, but you'd never know that if all you watch is Fox "news."
Over on state-run TV, Antifa is the real problem, not the angry mob of far-right "Proud Boys" who were caught on tape kicking and punching people on the streets of New York City following a speech from their leader, Gavin McInnes:
Members of a far-right group called the “Proud Boys” got in a violent encounter on the streets of New York on Friday night after a speech from the group’s leader Gavin McInnes, with videos showing more than a dozen members of the group kicking and punching people on the ground.
Dressed in their uniform—black polo shirts with yellow piping—the Proud Boys can be seen stomping on a person on the ground near Third Avenue and 83rd Street on the east side of Manhattan. A person can be heard yelling “faggot” during the violence.
Three men, all from New York, were charged as a result of the clash for allegedly taking a backpack with a wallet inside from 30-year-old New Jersey man, the NYPD said.
In a statement released Saturday afternoon, NYPD spokesman Phil Walzak said officers were keeping watch over a peaceful protest outside an event featuring the Proud Boys leader when several officers leaving the scene came across an assault under way.
But videos posted online from the brawl show a much different scenario. Authorities said investigators were reviewing videos and evidence to piece together what happened and determine if other crimes were committed, and if so, identify the suspects and make additional arrests.
Here's more on the attack from Think Progress: Mob of white nationalist ‘Proud Boys’ brutally beat several men: ‘Are you brave now, faggot?!’:
The Proud Boys took Manhattan Friday night, attending a lecture by their founder, Gavin McInnes, at the Metropolitan Republican Club of New York City.
Following the event, the white nationalist group took to the streets, brutally beating and kicking several individuals while shouting “faggot” and “cocksucker,” reportedly because one of them stole one of their MAGA hats. Fox News responded by only reporting on anti-fascist vandalism that had taken place at the venue, while continuing to portray Democrats as the real angry mobs.
McInnes’ lecture was about Otoya Yamaguchi, who himself was a member of an extremist right-wing group in Japan. In 1960, Yamaguchi stabbed Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma to death, and he has been celebrated as a hero of extreme nationalist groups.
McInnes claimed on Instagram that he would actually be “re-enacting this inspiring moment” at the event. That the Proud Boys were hyped to engage in violence of their own afterward appears to be no coincidence.
As they noted, the beatings were well documented. Here's just one example from filmmaker Sandi Bachom, where a protester tried to take one of their MAGA hats and was "brutally kicked and punched."
And, as they also discussed, that's not how Fox "news" covered the violence:
Fox News’ coverage of the event, however, did not in any way highlight the Proud Boys’ gang violence. Instead, it focused exclusively on the Antifa vandalism that targeted the Metropolitan Republican Club in advance of McInnes’ lecture, framing the anti-fascist group as responsible for instigating violence.
Fox's Shannon Bream and Trace Gallagher covered the breaking news on Fox News @ Night in the video above, and here's another segment from Fox & Friends on Saturday morning, where the network continued to completely ignore the violence incited by the far-right mob of Proud Boys:
Reporting on violence from far-right extremists doesn't fit nicely into their latest theme that Democrats and Antifa are the violent ones, so they simply choose to ignore it and hope their viewers don't get their news from any other sources.
The SPLC has more on the Proud Boys and McIness and their extreme views here.
