Antifa, Quillette, and Media Bias

Who got smeared?

Note: See the July 10 update at the end of article.

The reprehensible assault on independent journalist and Quillette editor Andy Ngo by “antifascist” activists at a Portland protest has once again turned the spotlight on violence by Antifa, the militant far-left movement. Perhaps this incident, which landed Ngo in the hospital with cuts, bruises, and head injuries, should also prompt a new look at another, thankfully nonviolent recent skirmish involving both Antifa and Quillette: a blow-up over a study claiming that some mainstream progressive journalists have ties to Antifa. The Quillette piece by the study’s author was blasted as a smear from a far-right troll posing as a scholar. But while there are some legitimate questions about the author’s objectivity, a close look at the controversy shows that the study has not been “discredited” as its detractors claim — and that its coverage also raises questions about media bias.

(Note: Information that has come to light after the publication of this article further damages the credibility of Eion Lenihan, the author of the study. While this new information does not directly affect the data in Lenihan’s article, it suggests that Lenihan’s study is too compromised by conflicts of interest and credibility issues to be considered reliable. At the same time, a…