Late yesterday, a group of armed militia members occupied a building at a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon in apparent solidarity with two area ranchers who set fire to federal land last year. But apparently ABC News’ social media team saw it differently. This is what those who follow ABC News on Twitter saw on Saturday night:
The tweet links to the Associated Press’ wire piece on the occupation. It turns out that the AP fell down on this one as well. This is the lead for that story:
“A peaceful protest Saturday in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge.”
Au contraire, ABC and AP. Au contraire. Virtually every media outlet that didn’t have its head up its rear end reported that a building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns is now being occupied by a group of armed militiamen led by the sons of rogue rancher Cliven Bundy. They stormed the refuge to protest the prosecution of Dwight Hammond, Jr. and his son, Steven, who were convicted last year of burning 130 acres of federal land to cover up poaching. They were both sentenced to five years in federal prison, and are set to turn themselves in on Monday. Through their attorney, they have disavowed the Bundys’ actions.
The militiamen–many of whom took part in the armed standoff at Bundy’s ranch in Mesquite, Nevada–have let it be known that they plan to stay for years if necessary, and haven’t ruled out violence if authorities try to remove them. But apparently those details were lost on whoever wrote the AP piece, as well as whoever wrote the tweet on ABC News.
To be fair, ABC News put out another tweet about the occupation:
But as of Sunday afternoon, the previous tweet is still visible. You would have thought that someone at ABC News would have realized the original tweet amounted to poor news judgment at best. Apparently not.
Let’s say it all together as a group–armed protesters are, by definition, not peaceful–whether they’re black or white. And they abandoned any tenuous claim they had to being peaceful by declaring that they would not rule out violence. Apparently that was lost on ABC and the AP.
