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I’m not a journalist and I don’t know if there are any conventions on subject framing in that discipline but I’ve noticed something about the protest coverage in Portland and other cities that imo journalists keep getting wrong.
Clashes at protests keep getting framed as “pro-Trump demonstrators” versus “counterprotesters” and I think that’s incorrect and even harmful in the perceptions this kind of framing promotes.
When a group of people who are open and outspoken white supremacists display affiliation with groups like Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys, III% - but they also fly Trump, blue line, and American flags - they’re using them as shorthand hate symbols.
Even the names of their events are shorthand references to hate groups and extremist conspiracy theories. These groups benefit from obscuring their primary affiliation so people don’t critically evaluate their intent and call them what they are - violent white supremacists.
So, at its most benign, calling these people “pro-Trump demonstrators” is disingenuous.
The conflict isn’t “I’m voting for Trump” versus “no, don’t do that”.
The framing is all wrong when it gets reported that way. Just dig barely deeper than the big flags on the $60k trucks.
The conflict isn’t “I’m voting for Trump” versus “no, don’t do that”.
The framing is all wrong when it gets reported that way. Just dig barely deeper than the big flags on the $60k trucks.
Framing the “counterprotesters” is also harmful because it clouds the purpose of 100 days of the most impactful social justice movement of our generation. It treats the collective actions from diverse groups and ideologies as monolithic and ignores many important points.
Positioning an enormous movement that unanimously calls to end police violence, and differs in nuance and practice on *how* to achieve that goal as “counterprotesting” supposed Trump voters removes their authority and purpose. It elevates white supremacy above racial justice.
Many leftists don’t even support the practice of electoral politics. Reducing these conflicts to a difference of voter choice is harmful in its failure to confront the role of police in this.
Police consistently collaborate with and protect armed white supremacists because hate groups have infiltrated politics and law enforcement, and because hate groups reinforce elite power, rather than challenge it.
Police have responded to protests against police violence with ever-escalating police violence. They’ve violated civil liberties, maimed unarmed civilians, poisoned communities with chemical weapons, and assaulted and intimidated the press.
In framing clashes as “demonstrators” versus “counterprotesters”, it treats police as neutral or even good-faith actors. They’re not. I’ve lost my patience for lazy journalism that barely even skims the surface of complex, dangerous political protests.
