Oregon’s U.S. Attorney Tells Media Their Distorted Portland Riots Coverage Is Part of the Problem

Legal Insurrection
“You’re choosing terms that sort of downplay the criminal activity, and what I’m suggesting is if there is an honest accounting of what this is, that helps build the reality check for how this can stop,” U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams told reporters.

"When it comes to setting the record straight on the anarchy and destruction happening in Portland, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams is not messing around.

"Williams, who is the chief federal law enforcement official for Oregon, recently gave an interview outside Portland’s battered Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse where he took the wind out of the sails of a few reporters who had an angle to push."

. . . 

"It was after that when things got really interesting. The reporter who brought up Wheelers’s alleged “leadership” then asked Williams if he believed the “the late night demonstrations” distracted “from the fight for racial justice” because apparently, it was essential to establish whether or not he was sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter cause.

"The reporter calling the riots a “late night demonstration” didn’t sit well with Williams. He proceeded to explain to her what was really going on and how the media’s distorted coverage of the Portland riots was part of the problem. Take particular note of how the reporter says, “some may argue” during this part of their exchange, as another reporter similarly did earlier. The translation for “some may argue” here is “the media and Democrats argue.” Keep that in mind as you read on:

WILLIAMS: These aren’t late night demonstrations. This is criminal activity. There’s a difference. What you have failed, and the media have failed to distinguish, between, you seem unwilling to call people engaged in criminal conduct, as criminals, as opposed to lawful protesting.

. . .
 "REPORTER 3: But I’m just saying, I’m not a police officer, I don’t get to distinguish that, that’s not my job.

"WILLIAMS: No, but you can call it out for what it is. You’re choosing terms that sort of downplay the criminal activity, and what I’m suggesting is if there is an honest accounting of what this is, that helps build the reality check for how this can stop. That’s my point." . . .

Why on earth are reporters not taken to task and made to defend their reporting? I feel they are no longer neutral observers that must be respected by anyone; they are active participants and defenders of the rioters. TD