Real threat to freedom of the press as mob attacks Tucker Carlson's home while CNN whines about Acosta the accoster losing White House access

In what looks to me like a terroristic threat, a mob of about 20 Antifa thugs pounded on the door of Tucker Carlson’s house, cracking it, and issued verbal threats intended to intimidate him into silence. Allyson Chiu reports in the Washington Post:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was at his desk Wednesday evening, less than two hours before his 8 p.m. live show, when he suddenly started receiving multiple text messages.

There was some sort of commotion happening outside his home in Northwest D.C.

“I called my wife,” Carlson told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “She had been in the kitchen alone getting ready to go to dinner and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming. ... Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door.”

The natural first assumption was that this was a home invasion attack. But when the thugs started using bullhorns, all doubt must have vanished. They posted videos of the attack on social media, since deleted.

“Tucker Carlson, we are outside your home,” one person could be heard saying in the since-deleted video. The person, using a bullhorn, accused Carlson of “promoting hate” and “an ideology that has led to thousands of people dying.”

“We want you to know, we know where you sleep at night,” the person concluded, before leading the group to chant, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!” (snip)

Carlson said the protesters had blocked off both ends of his street and carried signs that listed his home address. The group called Carlson a “racist scumbag" and demanded that he “leave town,” according to posts on Twitter. A woman was also overheard in one of the deleted videos saying she wanted to “bring a pipe bomb” to his house, he said.

DC police say that they arrived “a few minutes” after being called, but there is no indication that any arrests were made for trespassing, damage to the home’s door, or making terroristic threats.

Twitter has suspended the account of @smashracismDC, the Antifa group that organized the mob, but in a tweet, threats were explicit:

“Racist scumbag, leave town!”

Every night you spread fear into our homes—fear of the other, fear of us, and fear of them. Each night you tell us we are not safe. Tonight you’re reminded that we have a voice. Tonight, we remind you that you are not safe either.#KnockKnockTucker pic.twitter.com/QlNVKS4oxN

— Smash Racism DC (@SmashRacismDC) November 7, 2018

One tweet posted a few minutes after 7p.m. — less than an hour before the beginning of “Tucker Carson Tonight” — accuses the host of hiding because he didn’t answer his door.

Tucker Carlson has been spewing nonstop hate and lies about he migrant caravan. He also has close ties to white supremacists: https://t.co/jMbQJk3o6D

Activists protested tonight at Carlson’s Washington DC area home. You can’t hide from those you hurt, Tucker.#KnockKnockTucker pic.twitter.com/uh6xfJxztA

— Smash Racism DC (@SmashRacismDC) November 8, 2018

One of the group’s tweets, which included Carlson’s address, was removed by Twitter soon after it was posted.

Because these cowards usually wear masks, surveillance videos that Carlson may possess might be useless as evidence, but if the DC police arrived promptly, they should have been able to question the masked demonstrators and examine their identification (if any). If they were behaving in this way and trespassing while wearing masks, they should have been brought in for questioning to determine their identities.

This incident ought to be a wake-up call for all members of the media. If Antifa gets away with this, other media figures of other ideological complexions could face their own threats. So far, too few media stars have spoken up in support:  

 

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume decried it as “revolting, and frightening.” Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo tweeted that the protesters were “cowards” for going to Carlson’s home while he was taping his show. S.E. Cupp, a CNN host, wrote on Twitter that the activists' actions were “not okay," adding, “don’t do this.”

Washington Post columnist Max Boot, who has been critical of Carlson, also spoke out against the protest.

“I think Tucker is a terrible influence on modern America but that doesn’t justify harassing him at home,” Boot tweeted. “Go high, not low.”

In his nightly newsletter, CNN’s Brian Stelter dedicated a section to the protest titled, “Tucker Carlson does not deserve this.” Stelter also shared screenshots of the newsletter on Twitter.

“You can love or hate Fox’s Tucker Carlson, but we should all be able to see that this protester behavior is wrong,” the newsletter read. Quoting the responses from Kelly and Boot, Stelter wrote, “I agree. Get a permit for a protest outside Carlson’s office if you want. But don’t chant ‘we know where you sleep at night’ outside his home.”

As this is being written, The New York Times has not covered the story. Nor has CNN, which is hyperventilating about “threats” to the free press when its rude correspondent Jim Acosta had his White House access curtailed after interrupting President Trump and refusing to yield his microphone, even pushing away the young intern who attempted to retrieve it yesterday in a press conference.

As Gateway Pundit points out,

At about the five second mark [of the second video] Acosta does a quick tomahawk chop on the woman’s left arm, briefly knocking her off balance by as she reaches for the mic.

Acosta’s actions appear to meet Cornell Law’s definition of ‘assault and battery’.

“In an act of physical violence by one person against another, “assault” is usually paired with battery. In an act of physical violence, assault refers to the act which causes the victim to apprehend imminent physical harm, while battery refers to the actual act causing the physical harm.”

But back in 2012, when the Daily Caller’s correspondent Neil Munro interrupted President Obama at a presser (but did not hog the microphone or push away the staffer who was attempting to retrieve the microphone, CNN was far from outraged, asking, “Obama interrupted: Disrespectful or latest in 'era of incivility'?”

And The Atlantic noted, “

Interrupting the president mid-speech is considered a serious breach of etiquette, and Obama's reaction shows how peeved (and probably taken aback) he was. Munro, and the Daily Caller, have immediately come in for harsh criticism by a wide range of journalists, including conservative ones. The problem isn't that Munro was asking tough questions; it's that he interrupted the commander-in-chief to ask them and in doing so guaranteed that none of the assembled press would be able to ask any serious questions -- since it's fairly clear that Munro's query was intended as provocation.

No word yet from the Atlantic on Acosta’s “provocation.”

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