The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is forming a hate speech task force to examine the current surge of anti-Semitism in which journalists suffer harassment and death threats on the social media. The ADL plans to assess the scope and source of the attacks; determine the effect of the harassment on free speech and the election; and develop solutions and countermeasures to the problem. Journalists attacked on social media during the 2016 campaign season include CNN’s Jake Tapper, Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, and Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times. (Anti-Defamation League, June 1, 2016, press release)
Feeling the heat of recent heat much from his own party over his attacks on a federal judge, soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appealed to his supporters to continue to question the judge’s fitness and to denounce “racist” reporters. (Bloomberg News, June 6, 2016, by Kevin Cirilli, Michael C. Bender, and Jennifer Jacobs)
A Politico reporter found himself thrown out of a June 2 Trump rally in San Jose. The campaign has blackballed the reporter who was attending on a general admission ticket rather than a press credential. Earlier in the week Trump referred to an ABC reporter as “sleeze” for asking questions about his failure to pay pledges to veterans charities. (Politico, June 3, 2016, by Ben Schreckinbger)