Journalists get harassed after FoxNews.com piece claims they sympathized with criminal gang
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Slate’s Jamelle Bouie tweeted that he received hateful messages after FoxNews.com published a story claiming he “sympathizes” with MS-13, one of the largest criminal gangs in the world.
FoxNews.com published an article on July 31 claiming that many media figures “presented sympathetic coverage” of the gang MS-13 after President Donald Trump gave “an impassioned speech … vowing to ‘destroy the vile criminal cartel.’” One of the media figures FoxNews.com cited was Bouie, Slate’s chief political correspondent, who wrote that Trump’s speech “connect[ed] immigrants with violent crime” and “us[ed] an outright racist trope: that of the violent, sadistic black or brown criminal, preying on innocent (usually white) women.” Bouie was not defending MS-13, but rather highlighting the racial implications of Trump’s rhetoric.
Hours after the FoxNews.com story was published, Bouie tweeted that he was receiving hateful messages because of the piece.
Apparently Fox News published some thing about how I just love MS-13 and this is what my various inboxes look like now. pic.twitter.com/mQjF4Lfj81
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) August 1, 2017
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump, who was also targeted by the FoxNews.com article, also hinted at receiving harassing messages due to the report.
Ah, this explains my email! https://t.co/DFvRKWoUm1
— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 31, 2017