Yesterday, Reason’s Robby Soave testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in a hearing on white supremacy. HuffPost senior reporter Andy Campbell didn’t like what Soave had to say, despite apparently not actually listening to what Soave had to say.
Congrats to the Oversight Committee for ruining yet another congressional hearing on white supremacy by inviting a lying dingus — in this case Robby Soave — to argue that hate crime isn't a problem. Just a superb job in both-sidesing here, very informative. Thanks!
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) May 15, 2019
I wrote a thing about the second congressional hearing in as many months that invited a hate crime denier to sit next to victims ? https://t.co/9i9LvH74QS
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) May 15, 2019
Anyone can write a thing. But Andy Campbell is evidently not capable of writing a thing without being disingenuous:
This @HuffPost write-up of my testimony before Congress yesterday doesn't even exist in the same universe as what actually happened. @AndyBCampbell claims I "denied hate and white supremacy pose a threat at all," but even quotes me doing the opposite. https://t.co/5DblzHtxFJ pic.twitter.com/ZsGiB1mNVc
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 16, 2019
HufPo: "It’s unclear why Congress would need a dissenting opinion during a hearing titled 'Confronting White Supremacy: The Consequences of Inaction.'" Ah yes, dissenting opinions, it's very unclear why we need any of those.
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 16, 2019
The article also posits AOC as the savior of the hearing for asking good questions. And her questions were fine! But they were very similar to the questions asked by other Dems (including Ayanna Pressley).
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 16, 2019
Recommended
HuffPo suggests Heather Heyer's mother, Ms. Susan Bro, was humiliated having to even sit near me. In reality, we had a polite discussion about tradeoffs between security and civil liberties, federal mandates and local autonomy, etc. She even said she would check out @reason.
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 16, 2019
Maybe Andy should check out Reason, too. Along with a copy of Journalism for Dummies.
I was at this hearing & Robby is right in this thread. The person who wrote this literally lives in an entirely different universe. Heather Heyer’s mom was friendly toward everyone & cordially said her views were probably somewhere between Robby’s & some of the others there. https://t.co/chWo4x5MMz
— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) May 16, 2019
Imagine being so obsessed with a predetermined narrative that has no basis in reality to the extent that you twist what’s right before your eyes to fit it. People who live life that way actually kind of scare me.
— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) May 16, 2019
Even Tlaib told Robby she understood where he was coming from! Seriously, I’m trying to wrap my mind around this level of willful obfuscation. If you’re looking for monsters to slay, there are actually plenty out there. @robbysoave is not the man you’re looking for.
— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) May 16, 2019
Also, @robbysoave’s views weren’t even THAT out of line with most of the other witnesses! A couple of the witnesses who track hate crime data agreed with him that more reporting could be misinterpreted as a rise in hate crimes. This is, you know, basic common sense.
— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) May 16, 2019
Did you read where they essentially say there wasn’t need for opposing view?!?!
— Politicked the Podcast (@WPoliticked) May 16, 2019
Oh yes. On trend with the left’s increasing authoritarianism.
— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) May 16, 2019
Here’s that part, by the way:
It’s unclear why Congress would need a dissenting opinion during a hearing titled “Confronting White Supremacy: The Consequences of Inaction” and predicated on the notion that extremist violence is indeed a problem. And yet here lawmakers were, again hearing arguments that perhaps the rising body count in the name of white supremacy isn’t a big issue at all.
We like to think that, as a rule, dissenting opinions aren’t inherently wrong. But even leaving that aside, Soave wasn’t actually dissenting from the widely held opinion that white supremacy is bad.
FFS, what is this article even
— Liz Wolfe (@lizzywol) May 16, 2019
Oh Andy, that’s not even what he said? come on
— Savannah Blueberry ??????????????? (@Savnnablubry) May 16, 2019
This is embarrassing (on HuffPost's part, natch) https://t.co/wTbNwKDNt9
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 16, 2019
Ironic that the HuffPost headline accused Robbie of acting in bad faith when the reporter in question appears to be the one acting in insanely bad faith pic.twitter.com/8W9JyiqD6c
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 16, 2019
Yep.
Andy is not a reporter, he is an activist
— Bob Malak (@bob_malak) May 16, 2019
Case in point:
Covington Catholic students can deny and deflect all they want – and we in the media can backpedal our headlines in a "complicated situation" – but you know what? Blackface is blackface. Racism is racism.
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) January 22, 2019
Some people just have a brand and run with it from therehttps://t.co/LDf0KIrfIV
— Rational Thinker 69 (@Rationalist69) May 16, 2019
Keep running with it, Andy. Right over the edge of that cliff.
It's just embarrassing. But worse, people like Campbell do real harm to the journalism profession. Trump didn't create distrust in media, he is exploiting it. Activists with columns presenting themselves as reporters are a big part of the lack of trust.
— Alex Zelinski (@A_Zelinski) May 16, 2019
It's fine, he'll be learning to code soon enough.
— BirdLawyerEsq (@birdlawyeresq) May 16, 2019
Editor’s note: A typo originally appearing in the headline of this post has been corrected.