The alleged fact-checkers over at Newsweek are out with a new article calling into question whether or not Antifa even exists.
The poorly argued fact-check came in response to a recent appearance from Senator Ted Cruz on The View earlier this week, when the panel got into a fiery debate over who the real election deniers are.
When Whoopi Goldberg began to bring up January 6th, Cruz fired back "Did I miss an entire year of Antifa riots where cities across this country were burning...?" to which she dopily replied "I don't know what an Antifa riot is."
In rating Cruz’s claim false, Newsweek’s Tom Norton argues that the majority of riots in 2020 occurred between late May to early June immediately before admitting that some of them did in fact continue for “nearly” a year in Portland, an antifa stronghold.
To wiggle out of admitting that fiery antifa riots did in fact go on for longer than a year while rating Cruz's claim that they did false, Norton then comically adds that *not all* the Portland riots were characterized by arson. Here Norton inverts an infamous CNN chyron, arguing that the riots were violent but mostly-non-fiery.
As if this wasn’t embarrassing enough, Norton also tries to argue that antifa actually-sort of-technically doesn’t exist, as there’s no formal organization called “antifa.” Was he expecting a violent left-wing group to register a 501(c)(3)?
The illogic was widely mocked online, as is seemingly everything from the fact-checking industry nowadays.
Among those poking fun at the article was Ted Cruz himself:
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 26, 2022
MetaFactGroup, which is critical of the fact-checking industry, chimed in “Perhaps the Boston Tea Party didn't happen because there was no group known as "Boston Tea" to host said party.”
Seriously, this "no organization/group known as such" defense is laughable. The media insists Antifa is only an idea, not an organization.
— MetaFactGroup (@fact_meta) October 26, 2022
1st: Even if we stipulate Antifa is just a set of ideas, what do we call it when a group of people who support such ideas riot?
And Ted Cruz’s National Security adviser Omri Ceren pointed out that Newsweek’s own prior reporting on antifa’s activities throughout 2020 preemptively debunks this “fact-check.”
Newsweek: Ted Cruz says Antifa burned US cities to the ground throughout 2020 but that's FALSE because Antifa doesn't exist.
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) October 26, 2022
Also Newsweek: Antifa staged waves of demonstrations around the 2020 election.
Journalists you guys. I just don't know. pic.twitter.com/Se751VF4d4
What will the fact-checkers come up with next? Stay tuned until the next time they hit “publish.”
Matt Palumbo is the author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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