For Media, Driving Into a Crowd of Protesters Is a ‘Clash’

12 August 2017 — FAIR

Headlines describing the running down of anti-fascist protesters as "clashes."

Headlines describing the running down of anti-fascist protesters as “clashes.”

The Washington Post, Boston Globe, AOL News, The Hill, BBC and Sky News UK all chose to frame the ramming of a car into anti-fascist protesters as “clashes.”

The BBC’s breaking news tweet, “One dead amid clashes between US white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville,” is an extremely odd way to describe a person driving a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters—as was AOL’s “1 Dead, 34 Injured in Clashes at Virginia Rally.”

The term “clashes”—as FAIR (10/14/15) has noted before—is a term designed to obscure blame,  presenting a picture of two equal sides engaging in violent activities. Reading “one dead” after “clashes” at a white nationalist rally gives us no idea who died, or who did the killing.

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