Media top headlines May 13
CNN boss Jeff Zucker defending his anchors becoming more ‘opinionated’ and ‘emotional’ round out today’s top media headlines
The Intercept was blasted by its original founder Thursday as "disgusting" after sharing a 24-minute video targeting a group of conservative journalists who have covered riots in major U.S. cities over the past year.
Singling out conservative reporters, notably Townhall senior writer Julio Rosas and The Daily Caller's Jorge Ventura, The Intercept concluded their only intent in documenting the carnage across the country was to embolden "the right-wing media’s campaign to portray racial justice protests as anarchic and dangerous." The video referred to the reporters as the "Riot Squad" and suggested they have been gleeful to witness the mayhem.
Rosas was the first reporter singled out in the video, and he had a frank message for the outlet on Twitter, telling it he stood by his work.
Rosas, who often shares his on-the-ground reporting on "The Ingraham Angle," spoke with Fox News on Thursday after watching The Intercept's condemnation of his coverage.
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They "beclowned themselves," Rosas said of The Intercept. He said that he "laughed" when he first saw the video, particularly because he said it never reached out to him before publishing.
Rosas rejected The Intercept's accusation that the sound of broken glass is "music to his ears" and that there's a reason he's documenting the damage. He says he has no regrets and he "made the right choice" because he had the chance to put a spotlight on leftist political violence against everyday Americans, such as small business owners.
Prominent pundits and social media users defended Rosas, noting he also covered the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill, which, Rosas curiously observed, was the rare piece of footage The Intercept appeared "to take at face value."
Ventura slammed The Intercept for smearing him and Rosas rather than "holding the powerful accountable."
"My initial reaction was shocked and disappointed," Ventura said in a statement to Fox News. "I was disappointed because The Intercept is supposed to hold those in power accountable that's journalism but instead spent their trying to time making a hit piece on us for reporting the news. There's a huge amount of risk for us who report on civil unrest, we cover the good, bad and ugly. "I think the point of the video was to make us seem like we take videos out of context to appease to a certain type of crowd which isn't true, I have reported on violence from the left and right."
As Rosas added on Twitter, he also reports on when protests remain peaceful, such as those he witnessed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Glenn Greenwald, the co-founder of The Intercept who resigned from the outlet last October, said what it's doing is "disgusting and dangerous."
"Journalists against journalism," writer Andrew Sullivan tweeted. Reload founder Stephen Gutowski called it a "trashy hit piece."
Many of those same critics were confused by the point The Intercept was trying to make, but Greenwald believed the video wanted "to incite violence against these journalists by encouraging Antifa to attack them."
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"Journalists have been repeatedly assaulted while covering Antifa protests. Antifa threatens journalists, breaks their cameras, and attacks them violently. The Intercept knows this. They're showing Antifa which 2 journalists they should look out for. That's what this is for," Greenwald wrote out of concern for Rosas and Ventura.
"I do feel like there will be bigger target on our backs than then already is," Ventura said. "The Intercept basically doxxed us and have put our lives in greater danger, that's the reality."
Rosas agreed that The Intercept "absolutely" made his job all that more dangerous.
"They know who their audience is," Rosas said. "It's going to be more dangerous, and they knew that. Whatever, I'm still going to do my job."
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