On the far right, shooting at Maryland newspaper draws praise, celebration
鈥婣fter five people were gunned down in their own newsroom, the normally feisty editorial page of the Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, went silent Friday.
鈥淭oday, we are speechless,鈥� . 鈥淭his page is intentionally left blank today to commemorate victims of Thursday鈥檚 shootings at our office.鈥�
But, among the far-right, activists were anything but silent, celebrating, speculating and casting blame for the shooting of a group of local reporters and editors who cover the central Maryland community.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 give a f--- about you, journalist,鈥� tweeted Nicholas Fuentes, a YouTube personality who attended the 鈥�Unite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hundreds of posts, tweets and comments populated Twitter, the alt-right social network Gab, 4chan and other social media outlets, condemning the five people killed in what they expected to be just another day at work.
The posts ranged from conspiratorial to wondering if the shooter was Jewish 鈥� a favorite target of the alt-right 鈥� to outright blaming the reporters for what happened to them.
鈥淲owza. Maybe it was a Jew, but probably a goy,鈥� wrote AltonRocht, on The Daily Stormer. 鈥淟et鈥檚 try to push an offensive narrative for this. The media, and the anti-white forces in American mean that these shootings will grow more frequent.鈥�
. He鈥檚 charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
The shooting came just days after President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally, pointed to a group of reporters and called them the 鈥渆nemy of the American people鈥� and alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said he couldn鈥檛 鈥渨ait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.鈥�
Yiannopoulos later referred to the comment as a joke, saying he wasn鈥檛 serious and police haven鈥檛 commented on a motive.
Andrew Anglin, the blogger and primary voice behind the racist and antisemitic website The Daily Stormer, posted a long diatribe about Yiannopoulos on Friday morning, and dismissed the deaths of the five journalists at the end.
"But seriously 鈥� just straight talk here 鈥� there is no single group of people on the planet that is more deserving of just getting gunned down like animals," Anglin wrote.
For far-right adherents, the shooting spurred on conspiracies and celebration that journalists, never a popular group with the alt-right, were dead.
鈥淚s there only 2 options here,鈥� wrote a poster going by 鈥淟ucky鈥� on Daily Stormer. 鈥�1. The beginning of our side taking out the real enemy. 2. False flag attack. If it was our guy, they would have killed him. So strange, how k---- pretending to be white, get taken alive.鈥�
Christopher Cantwell, best known as the 鈥淐rying Nazi鈥� after the Unite the Right rally, kept his thoughts simple: 鈥�#MAGA鈥� posted over a picture of Yiannopoulos and a Drudge Report headline 鈥淪hooting at Newspaper.鈥�
鈥淭hey should live in fear,鈥� tweeted @WarthogJim, whose account was suspended Friday morning.
Alt-right activist Laura Loomer tied the shootings to recent comments from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who called for Trump administration staffers to be harassed while out in public.
鈥淚 wonder if the shooter in Annapolis today is a supporter of @RepMaxine Waters 鈥︹�� Loomer wrote on Twitter shortly after the shooting took place.
Others took on the reporters as a stereotype, lumping everyone working in journalism into a group up to no good.
鈥淚f they work for a newspaper, they鈥檝e got to be douchebags,鈥� wrote @GabrielWest, posting as 鈥淛oe Lincoln鈥� on Twitter. 鈥淔---鈥檈m. #Kapow #LyingLeftistLosers #F---TheLeftistMedia.鈥�
But, for all the anger, conspiracies and stereotypes about those killed, no one on the far-right mentioned the names of the five people with families, friends and loved ones who were killed: Robert Hiaasen,聽John McNamara,聽Gerald Fischman,聽Wendi Winters and Rebecca Smith.
