In an extraordinarily selective move which reeks of political motivations, the Associated Press has issued "usage" and "boilerplate" guidance relating to the "alt-right" which it clearly expects its "1,400 U.S. daily newspaper members and thousands of television and radio broadcast members" to follow.
The AP is essentially demanding that journalists henceforth define the beliefs of the "alt-right" as the wire service defines them, and specifically insists that those alleged beliefs be identified "whenever 'alt-right' is used in a story."
The post announcing the move at the wire service's "Definitive Source" blog ("Writing About the 'alt-right'") by John Daniszewski, the AP's Vice President for Standards, is a clear attempt to reshape the journalistic, political and ultimately even the linguistic battle space from this point forward.
Here are excerpts from Daniszewski's post (HT The Hill; bolds are mine):
Recent developments have put the so-called “alt-right” movement in the news. They highlight the need for clarity around use of the term and around some related terms, such as “white nationalism” and “white supremacism.”
... The “alt-right” or “alternative right” is a name currently embraced by some white supremacists and white nationalists to refer to themselves and their ideology, which emphasizes preserving and protecting the white race in the United States in addition to, or over, other traditional conservative positions such as limited government, low taxes and strict law-and-order.
The movement has been described as a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.
Although many adherents backed President-elect Donald Trump in the recent election, Trump last week said he disavows and condemns the “alt-right.”
The movement criticizes “multiculturalism” and more rights for non-whites, women, Jews, Muslims, gays, immigrants and other minorities. Its members reject the American democratic ideal that all should have equality under the law regardless of creed, gender, ethnic origin or race.
... Avoid using the term generically and without definition ...
Again, whenever “alt-right” is used in a story, be sure to include a definition: “an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism,” or, more simply, “a white nationalist movement.”
The AP's obsession with the "alt-right" and it insistence that it always be defined in news reports appears to be unprecedented.
Daniszewski and the AP have certainly issued no equivalent "guidance" demanding that journalists define the beliefs of other fringe, extreme or violent groups. One obvious example: Black Lives Matter. The AP could defensibly and routinely describe BLM as "a radical, Democratic Party-endorsed branch of liberalism with a history of civic disruption, violent language, and violent actions mixing black racism, anti-white racism and anti-law enforcement activism." But it doesn't.
Similarly, the AP, in covering the activities of the violent, murderous Weather Underground for decades during the 20th century, typically described it only as "radical," venturing into the group's beliefs only when there were reports of serious disagreements among its core members.
The commonly understood definition of "alt-right" 2-3 years ago was "a diverse assortment of people, mostly online, who identify as right-wingers but consider themselves either opposed to, or profoundly alienated from mainstream American conservatism — usually because they view it as being too liberal, or preoccupied with the wrong issues." In other words, despite who may or may not have first coined it, it was a term commonly used by utterly non-racist people who thought the Republican Party in Washington and the political insiders claiming to be conservatives were not adequately promoting or defending conservative principles.
The author of the item linked above, however, correctly notes that in public perception and usage (largely aided by Hillary Clinton in league with the establishment press during her presidential campaign's final months), "Ownership over the name “alt-right” has now been pretty firmly claimed by white nationalists, and I believe the era of it being a broad term capable of describing a diversity of beliefs has ended."
As "currently embraced," using the AP's words, the alt-right is a tiny fringe group. As The Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi wrote in Sunday's Washington Post:
... how many people constitute the movement is virtually unknowable. It's a loose and informal congregation: They don't have memberships, and the majority of those who self-identify do so through anonymous accounts.
Easy to quantify, however, was the turnout at the (alt-right, white nationalist) National Policy Institute's recent event in Washington: 275 people. ... While the alt-right is real and visible, there's no reason to believe it's a very vast group or one that will stick around for very long.
So the days of "alt-right" as a term describing mainstream beliefs are over. Barring its groups' participants venturing into violence, the people involved in the current "alt-right" could justifiably be ignored as irrelevant. But the Associated Press clearly wants to perpetuate the term and maximize its participants' visibility. The AP post give its journalists the ability to use the term "alt-right" and its mandated definitions as a club to smear and any and all center-right beliefs. The dead giveaway is Daniszewski's reference to "other traditional conservative positions."
Contrary to what the AP's Daniszewski apparently wants readers to believe, "the American democratic ideal that all should have equality under the law regardless of creed, gender, ethnic origin or race" is a core conservative ideal. To the apparently significant extent that the "alt-right" as currently defined rejects this ideal, it is the antithesis of conservatism. Thus, characterizing the alt-right as "currently embraced" as "an offshoot of conservatism," as Daniszewski and the AP have done, is a monumentally outrageous insult to conservatives, and a deliberate smear — now mandated, whenever the term is used.
The hypocrisy here is overwhelming. Democrats held slaves until the Republican-led Civil War freed them. Democrats instituted and perpetuated the Jim Crow era in the South, up to and including the murderous Ku Klux Klan. Democrats in far greater numbers than Republicans opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Democrats and leftists today almost universally support a woman's right to murder her unborn child, leading to a situation where unborn black babies are three times more likely to have their lives taken through abortion than unborn babies of other races. Those who describe themselves as conservatives are overwhelmingly pro-life.
But the truth apparently doesn't matter at the AP, which is attempting to use its prominent position in the journalistic food chain to serve as the nation's equivalent of the Ministry of Truth seen in George Orwell's 1984.
Thus, the minute Donald Trump (who has denounced "alt-right" groups as currently defined at least "25 times") or any other Republican or conservative advocates a policy promoting a "traditional conservative position," an enterprising, agenda-driven reporter can speed-dial or email an "alt-right" official and get a statement or go to an alt-right web site and find a related press release. If the reporter chooses to use the quote they've obtained, AP guidance would then demand that the reporter smear that position and those behind it by associating it and them with "racism, white nationalism and populism."
Just a few potential examples might include the following:
- "President Trump today proposed cutting the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent. In a press release, Whitey Whitehead of Whites for Lily-Whiteness characterized the proposal as 'a good start.' Whites for Lily-Whiteness is one of several groups in the 'alt-right,' an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism."
- "President Trump's working group on regulatory reform issued its preliminary list of regulations it says would reduce company and employer compliance costs and help the economy grow faster. Whitey Whitehead of Whites for Lily-Whiteness characterized the proposal in an emailed response as 'very helpful for our members who own companies.' Whites for Lily-Whiteness is one of several groups in the 'alt-right,' a white nationalist movement."
- "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today called Supreme Court nominee Louis Law 'a constitutional scholar and a strict constructionist whose civil-rights track record demonstrates that he would treat everyone equally under the law.' But Law came under fire today after he was endorsed as a defender of 'white rights' by Whitey Whitehead of Whites for Lily-Whiteness and other groups in the white nationalist 'alt-right.'"
Voila! The AP is giving permission to its own mostly quite willing journalists and reporters at subscribing outlets to effectively say that tax cuts, regulatory reform, strict constructionist judges, and any other disliked position held by conservatives are all racist, simply because a tiny, objectively inconsequential number of fringe-group racists support them.
One would hope that the AP's subscribing outlets won't stand for this, and will force the wire service to withdraw its guidance. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely.
What really needs to happen, if the AP won't change: either a mass exodus by AP subscribers, or a mass movement by news consumers to non-establishment press outlets.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
