Bill Berkowitz and Gale Bataille for BuzzFlash: The Unification Church–Owned Washington Times, Fox News, and Christian Nationalists Spearhead Lie That Antifa Was Involved in Capitol Insurrection
January 12, 2021
Dangerous big lies piled upon big lies: Trump and his sycophants ignited the seditious assault on the Capitol. Predictably, many right-wingers, right-wing media and even Trump are trying to deflect their backing of an ongoing insurrection by ludicrously putting the blame on Antifa. (Blink O'fanaye)
By Bill Berkowitz and Gale Bataille
"Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening,…Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news." Donald Trump speaking to a Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Kansas City, Mo., July 2018.
A January 6th story in The Washington Times went viral with claims of evidence that antifa was involved in the insurrection at the US Capitol building. The article was headlined, “Facial Recognition Firm Claims Antifa Infiltrated Trump Protesters Who Stormed Capitol,” and reported that a facial recognition company had identified antifa members among the mob that stormed the Capitol. The story was bogus and a day later was removed from paper’s website. But the beast had been unleashed. And the alternative facts crowd was running with it. (Note: The Washington Times, founded in 1982 by the ultra-right Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, is currently owned by Operations Holdings, a part of the Unification movement.)
The alternative facts crowd is jumping on the “blame it on antifa” bandwagon, desperate to deflect blame from pro-Donald Trump supporters for the insurrectionary terrorism he unleashed in Washington on Wednesday, January 6. , is jumping on the “blame it on antifa” bandwagon. The attack on the U.S. Capitol building was shocking, but not surprising to those following white supremacist/neo-Nazi groups on social media.
However, what is somewhat surprising, is the extent to which right-wing partisans are attemping to blame the mob violence on leftists. In trying to explain away the trespassing, violence, destruction, that resulted in 5 deaths, Christian nationalists, right-wing radio talk show hosts, Fox News Channel and Newsmax hosts, and right-wing social media platforms are platforms are pushing an alternative narrative in which antifa was responsible. As NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins reported, “Radical conservative activists and allies of President Donald Trump quickly began to spread disinformation about the Capitol riots Wednesday, claiming with no evidence that pro-Trump protesters photographed breaking into congressional chambers were anti-fascist activists.”
MSNBC’s Steve Benen reported: “Among the first hints of this that crossed my radar was a tweet from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), one of Congress' most right-wing members, who suggested that the riot incited by the president was an example of ‘leftist violence.’ Soon after, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on the House floor that he believes there were ‘antifa’ members ‘masquerading as Trump supporters’ committing acts of violence at the Capitol.”
However, according to BuzzFeed News’ Craig Silverman, the company XRVision, founded in 2015 in Singapore, “told BuzzFeed News it asked the conservative news outlet for a retraction and apology over the story, which was cited in the House of Representatives after the riot late Wednesday by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ardent Trump supporter.”
According to BuzzFeed’s Silverman, “On Wednesday, the Washington Times published a story that claimed XRVision ‘used its software to do facial recognition of protesters and matched two Philadelphia Antifa members to two men inside the Senate.’ It claimed one man ‘has a tattoo that indicates he is a Stalinist sympathizer’ and the other ‘is someone who shows up at climate and Black Lives Matter protests in the West.’ The story did not name the men or provide evidence that they were involved in antifa, a decentralized group of ‘anti-fascists’ who go to protests around the US and whom the right often uses as a bogeyman.”
An XRVision attorney, “issued a statement to BuzzFeed News refuting the Washington Times story. The statement said XRVision’s software actually identified two members of neo-Nazi organizations and a QAnon supporter among the pro-Trump mob — not antifa members.’ Our attorney is in contact with the Washington Times and has instructed them to ‘Cease and Desist’ from any claims regarding sourcing of XRVision analytics, to retract the current claims, and publish an apology,’ said the statement.
The Washington Times was forced to issue a correction, stating: "An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that XRVision facial recognition software identified Antifa members among rioters who stormed the Capitol Wednesday. XRVision did not identify any Antifa members. The Washington Times apologizes to XRVision for the error."
Running With Rumors
According to NBC’s Zadrozny and Collins, “The rumors also spread on Fox News and Fox Business Network. Lou Dobbs and Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., discussed the possibility of antifa instigators' infiltrating the pro-Trump mob. And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the same claim, telling Fox News host Martha MacCallum that it was unclear who was instigating the riots. ‘A lot of it is the antifa folks,’ Palin said, citing ‘pictures’ she had seen. Laura Ingraham, one of the channel’s primetime hosts, spent much of the hour of her show suggesting without evidence that the Trump protesters had been infiltrated by antifa. The only evidence she provided was that some protesters wore helmets and knee pads, which she said she hadn’t seen before at Trump rallies.”
Conservative evangelical Christians were particularly insistent that it was antifa, and not Trump supporters that caused the violence. Televangelist Mark Burns, a longtime Trump supporter, tweeted, "This is NOT a Trump supporter...This is a staged #Antifa attack."
Evangelist Franklin Graham stated, “The people who broke the windows in the Capital [sic] did not look like the people out there demonstrating. Most likely it was antifa.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, opined during a radio broadcast that it is “still uncertain as to the full composition of the group that breached security and made their way into the Capitol.”
Sandy Rios of American Family Radio said that the rioters were people “who love their country,” enjoyed Trump’s “inspiring speech” and were angry over “the fraud that took place in their states.” And, Rios claimed that antifa was in the midst of the crowd: “I’m telling you, it was incitement. … They were dressed in black with Trump hats.”
As Rob Boston pointed out in his story at the Americans United’s Wall of Separation Blog, “These people did not try to hide who they were: They took selfies, made videos and posted to social media even as they rampaged – and when the police collect that material and start arresting the offenders, I’m going to bet there won’t be an antifa member among them.”
Alex Newhouse, a researcher of far-right extremism, wrote at The Conversation that not only was Donald Trump’s December 18 tweet, “Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there, will be wild!” meant to encourage a huge crowd, but “[a]cross Twitter and Facebook, people began speaking of Jan. 6 in near-mystical terms. … I discovered thousands of posts referring to the planned protests as if they were a coming revolution.”
According to Newhouse, “QAnon adherents zeroed in on Jan. 6 as the beginning of a chain of events that would lead to apocalyptic cleansing they refer to as ‘The Storm.’ Some even believed that The Storm would arrive during the demonstration itself, and that Trump would, far beyond any reasonable expectation, arrest members of the Democratic and global elite for treason while also winning the election.”
So which is it: “right-minded” protesters expressing righteous anger and doing their patriotic duty, or antifa agitators? There really isn’t a question.
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