NPR Skipped Attempted Murder of Kavanaugh, But Obsesses Over Tiny Boston Neo-Nazi Group

National Public Radio was unable to find anything newsworthy about the assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The evening newscast All Things Considered on June 13, they devoted five and a half minutes to a story headlined “A New England neo-Nazi group is attracting members using Republican talking points.”

It’s bigger news that there’s a “tiny but growing clique” of Nazis in Massachusetts.

They turned to WGBH “senior investigative reporter” Phillip Martin in Boston, but this really seemed like a commercial for the left-wing Anti-Defamation League, starting with Oren Segal, who runs the ADL Center on Extremism, who warned of a group called the National Socialist Club, or NSC-131. Pay no attention to the mental clash of the “socialists” using Republican talking points. They maintained that the Capitol was occupied by members of Socialist Club on January 6.

Later Martin’s “investigative” press release turned to the local ADL boss:

MARTIN – In January 30 neo-Nazis marched in Boston near Brigham and Women’s Hospital to protest programs for racial justice in medicine. This rhetoric was very similar to that of former President Donald Trump, who made a false claim at an Arizona rally days before.

DONALD Trump: Today, the left is restricting lifesaving treatments based upon race.

MARTIN – Robert Trestan (director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England) fears Trump’s popularity of white grievances could have contributed to NSC-131 growing its membership.

ROBERT TRESTAN (And we know it because their protest in front Brigham and Women’s Hospital actually attracted more people that we’ve ever seen at other protests.

How serious is this neo Nazi threat? Oh, Martin already reported on this protest for NPR back then: “On Saturday Jan. 22, about two dozen white nationalists dressed in identical beige khaki pants and dark hoodies protested in front of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston holding a bedsheet with black lettering reading ‘B and W Hospital Kills Whites.’”

“About two dozen.” This is your national threat to “attract members”. Outside the residences of conservative Supreme Court justices, you’re attracting a wider audience. Martin was also featured on MSNBC in promotion of the micro-story.

The latest story began with the story of white-supremacist student Liam McNeil being allowed to attend the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, but by the story’s end, he was dropping out. Trump is still to be praised.

MARTIN

AWA: Many people were able to show their true colors after Trump was elected president.

MARTIN – The ADL reported on campus incidents of white supremacist rhetoric more than doubled between 2018 and 2019. This led to more than 600 such incidents in the country that year.

Even though they still produce a small army, Nazis are making national news by distributing a few flyers. Why aren’t we talking about 2022 numbers? The numbers fell. “Year-over-year, the number provocation events on college campuses decreased 23 percent. It dropped from 303 in 2017 to 232 in 2018. This is the lowest figure since ADL began monitoring incidents in 2017. This is not a small number, but it’s growing.

Nina Totenberg is a NPR Supreme Court reporter. On Friday, she appeared on NPR Politics Podcast to talk ….Ginni Tom and not Kavanaugh. Clarence Thomas does not follow an ethical guideline at the Supreme Court.