{"id":325942,"date":"2017-09-14T01:19:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T00:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/in-month-after-charlottesville-papers-spent-as-much-time-condemning-anti-nazis-as-nazis\/"},"modified":"2017-09-14T01:19:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T00:19:31","slug":"in-month-after-charlottesville-papers-spent-as-much-time-condemning-anti-nazis-as-nazis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/in-month-after-charlottesville-papers-spent-as-much-time-condemning-anti-nazis-as-nazis\/","title":{"rendered":"In Month After Charlottesville, Papers Spent as Much Time Condemning Anti-Nazis as Nazis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

Members of the antifa movement “are no different from neo-Nazis,” wrote Washington Post<\/strong> columnist Marc Thiessen (8\/30\/17<\/a>). “Both practice violence and preach hate. They are morally indistinguishable.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Since the Charlottesville attack a month ago, a review of commentary in the six top broadsheet newspapers<\/a>\u2014the Wall Street Journal, New York Times<\/b>, USA Today<\/b>, LA Times<\/b>, San Jose Mercury News <\/b>and Washington Post<\/b>\u2014found virtually equal amounts of condemnation of fascists and anti-fascist protesters.<\/p>\n

Between August 12 and September 12, these papers ran 28 op-eds or editorials condemning the anti-fascist movement known as antifa, or calling on politicians to do so, and 27 condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists, or calling on politicians\u2014namely Donald Trump\u2014to do so.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of this survey, commentary that drew a comparison between antifa and neo-Nazis, but devoted the bulk of its argument to condemning antifa, was categorized as anti-antifa. There were no op-eds or editorials framed as condemnations of \u201cboth sides\u201d that spent as much or more time condemning or criticizing neo-Nazis. The \u201cboth sides\u201d frame\u2014which was employed<\/a> by Donald Trump in the wake of the attack, and endorsed<\/a> by white supremacist David Duke\u2014was almost always used a vehicle to highlight and denounce antifa, with a \u201cto be sure\u201d line about neo-Nazis thrown in for good measure. A breakdown of the op-eds and editorials can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While most \u201cboth sides\u201d columns added a qualifier clarifying that there was no moral equivalency between antifa and neo-Nazis, this framing could not help but imply that there was. And a few explicitly argued that, yes, anti-fascism was just as bad as fascism:<\/p>\n