Why is NPR giving rise to the Alt-Right?
Their daily coverage is bringing the Alt-Right into the mainstream.
If you’re an NPR listener you’re familiar with the narrative that Donald Trump and Breitbart have given rise to the “Alt-Right” — a loose group of around 100 prolific writers who reject mainstream conservatism. Leveraging websites like 4chan and 8chan to spread their “far-right” and “far-left” ideologies they are skilled at creating internet memes to advance their political views. Much of their content isn’t serious, but designed to provoke controversy.
The reality is that, those who consider themselves to be part of the Alt-Right are so marginalized and irrelevant, Donald Trump has never even mentioned them before. The so called “platform for the Alt-Right”, Breitbart has only written about the group once. The interesting thing is that NPR covers the Alt-Right almost every single day — their coverage has given rise to the group and brought them into the mainstream.
Yesterday NPR had Breitbart editor Joel Pollak on to discuss the Alt-Right and he explained in very clear terms that, despite claims to the contrary, his publication was not a platform for the group,
“The only alt-right content we have is a single article out of tens of thousands of articles, which is a journalist article about the alt-right by Milo Yiannopoulos and Allum Bokhari. Which basically went into this movement and tried to figure out what it was all about. That’s not racist, it’s journalism.”
Why is NPR giving so much coverage to a group that is comprised of so few people with almost no resources? The answer is simple — they seek to connect the group with Donald Trump with the goal of delegitimizing his campaign and his presidency. The last 57 stories about Donald Trump on NPR’s website include mentions of the “Alt-Right”. They are relentless in their coverage of the group AND relentless in their effort to link them to Donald Trump. The next time someone tells you that Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, or Breitbart are part of the Alt-Right — remind them that the ONLY organization who is giving rise to the Alt-Right is NPR.
The most ironic twist of NPR’s mainstream coverage of the tactics of the Alt-Right has been the rise of the Alt-Left. The Alt-Left, spearheaded by groups like ThinkProgress, uses many of the tactics employed by the Alt-Right. Perhaps more interestingly NPR hasn’t mentioned the Alt-Left a single time.
Here are 50 or so examples of NPR stories that mention the Alt-Right:
