OK, it's time for a little thread on how to and how not to cover hate speech and the current iteration of white supremacist, Christian nationalist ideology that has completely taken over conservative politics, starring the East Valley's favorite red-faced bigot, Scott Weinberg.

We'll look at two articles published yesterday about Weinberg dropping out of the Kyrene School Board race after falsely identifying an LGBTQ+ college student as a mass shooter. One from @azcentral, written by @lilyalta, and the other from @phoenixnewtimes, written by @raystern

Before we begin, let me just say I have frequently read and respect the work of both of these writers. And while @lilyalta is about to come in for some criticism, I don't really blame her. I blame the bullshit conservatism of publications like @azcentral.

This is how @lilyalta on @azcentral characterized Weinberg's history of bigoted statements on social media the conflict between Weinberg and Chandler Unified board member @llove85. This is classic "both sides"-ism. Love said he made bigoted comments. Weinberg said he didn't.

This rhetorical stance that is often taken by mainstream media outlets presumes that the reporter's job is to take dictation and leave it to the reader to make any judgments. It assumes both parties are acting in good faith and their point of view is equally valid.

The problem is, the current right-wing hate movement has learned to weaponize this reportorial objectivity by making blatantly false statements and spreading hate speech, knowing reporters will dutifully report it as "one side" of the argument.

And, of course, this benefit of the doubt is only extended to certain groups. When blatant misinformation and hate speech come from a conservative white man like Scott Weinberg or Donald Trump, they are taken as valid. Marginalized groups never get the same benefit of the doubt.

So this objective recording of differing view of what constitutes bigoted comments is left to stand on its own, with Love coming off as the stereotypical hysterical black woman who sees racism everywhere and Weinberg as the honest white man who didn't mean to give offense.

According to @azcentral, it is apparently not the reporter's job to investigate if one of these claims might have more merit than the other, because bigotry is all in the eye of the beholder. For contrast now, let's look at how @raystern covered this issue in @phoenixnewtimes

Stern actually draws from the widely available evidence of Weinberg's past social media behavior to show examples of the kinds of statements Love deemed bigoted and shows pretty clearly that any reasonable person should agree with that assessment.

Instead of just taking Weinberg's word for it and allowing Weinberg and Love's version of events to exist side-by-side, he shows that the evidence clearly supports Love and that Weinberg has a history of statements any reasonable person would consider bigoted.

As one of the last remaining classic alt-weeklys, @phoenixnewtimes acknowledges that a writer has a point of view and that the claimed objectivity of mainstream papers like @azcentral is still a rhetorical stance that has consequences.

This is why alt-weeklys have always been an important part of the media environment of a community. They highlight that this objectivity is an inherently small-c conservative position that has the consequence of advantaging those who already have power.

This issue is more important than ever now, as misinformation and hate speech come from the White House down, and those tactics trickle down into communities through idiots like Weinberg. At some point, journalists have to drop their stance of objectivity and push back.

Or, as Eli Wiesel said in a famous quote people love to post on Instagram without really thinking about:

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere."

Oops, just realized I forgot to actually link to the stories. Please take the time to read both. And subscribe to @azcentral or your local paper and support @phoenixnewtimes or your local alt-weekly.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/tempe-school-board-candidate-scott-weinberg-quits-race-after-homophobic-accusation-westgate-11472348 https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2020/05/26/kyrene-candidate-scott-weinberg-quits-race-after-false-tweet-westgate-shooter/5259732002/